2012-11-19
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The fresh team ready ready to take the step for a day of
learning at the NICD
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| Lucille Blumberg sharing her malaria wisdom |
The John Frean gave us an
interesting presentation on malaria immunizations and the progress, obstacles
and limitations we are currently facing before a malaria immunization will make
a significant impact on health and mortality in Africa.
Then we headed up to the Vector Control Reference Unit and
met Lizette Koekemoer. We had a brief
discussion on what her job entails and then we went to the entomology /
mosquito breeding area. It’s a building
with strict environmental control - temperature, humidity and even the
day-night cycle to allow scientists employed here to study a mosquitoes’ day
and night behavioural patterns all in their workday. They test mosquitoes collected in the field
for their susceptibility to commonly used malaria programme Pesticides. They also breed mosquitoes with known
pesticide susceptibility that can be used in the field to estimate whether residual
spraying in households is effective.
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| The field trip team entering the insectary... |
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| Lizette Koekemoer explaining the mosquito breeding and pesticide sensitivity testing. |
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| Muthei Dombo investigating the mosquito specimens |
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| Malaria incidence in South Africa from 1972 to 2008. The colourful squares indicate different pesticide and chemotherapy milestones |
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| Megan Saffer, Mandla Mavimbela and Neil Cameron |
Jackie Weyers from the Centre for Emergency and Zoonotic
Pathogens discussed outbreak responses for haemorrhagic fevers like CrimCongo,
Marburg and Ebola. We asked her
questions about control, barriers contact tracing. They have a P4 bio hazardous diagnostic
laboratory and we had a look at the personal protective suits and laminar flow
laboratory boxes. The NICD lab is the
only of its kind in the whole of Africa.
We also asked about the media interaction and the consternation that
goes with the detection of haemorrhagic fevers as well as the personal stress
of having to work with viruses in which the infected have an 80% mortality. |
| Lucille Blumberg, Barry Schoub, Neil Cameron |
After the magnificent gourmet lunch we watched the documentary film; Kuru: The science and the sorcery. This is a fascinating and scary portrayal of the discovery and initial investigation into the strange disease that was first discovered in Papua New Guinea in the 1950’s. Michael Alfreds, a young Australian doctor, was so intrigued by the neurological disease that he decided to relocate to this extremely rural tropical jungle area to investigate the relationships and possible causative factors. This lead to the discovery that it is transferrable to Chimpanzees, the entity later coined as prions and the links to the transmission of Kuru via cannibalism! This is a must watch and could be quite disturbing for sensitive viewers.
Outbreaks investigations and responses are the core
functions of NICD and therefore Juno Thomas spent 2 hours teaching us on the
basics. We had ample time for questions
and they were answered from a point of great knowledge and experience. A bunch of examples were used to bring home
the point of the importance of an organized and well-planned response.
We moved outside for the late afternoons session and all
placed our chairs on the grass outside the NICD main building. Lucille Blumberg discussed reasons for
surveillance and strategies with us before we had to give feedback on some
potential public health exam questions that were given to us in the
morning. More rich and stimulating
discussion venturing through all theoretical avenues, but always returning to
the current reality in South Africa.
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| Fidele Mukinda, Gina Bernhardt, Julius Ayuk, Shabir Madhi, Rosamund Southgate, Robin Dyers and Ziyaad Essop at the social after the lecture. |
What struck me about the NICD was the absolute essential role they can and have to play in an health care system. Organizations like the NICD is a ship carrying an freight that a country like South Africa can not go without and I was very proud to know that there is a group of sailors and captains that in the last decade kept the ship afloat through some very heavy storms. With the changes thats currently on the horizon and a new minister of health the NICD is bound to get closer to the role it should play in monitoring and preventing disease in our country.
