August 2006 Report
Summary:
August saw much activity around Macha - as the mission celebrated its 100th year anniversary of being founded by two American missionary women. The Malaria Institute was called upon to help in a number of ways with the activities, including hosting of about 30 North American visitors who came to witness the celebrations. We were also asked to help to greet the Zambian Vice President, who toured the research lab and campus when he came to officially open the anniversary celebrations.
Research work continued in the molecular biology laboratory, including a project under contract with the Zambian National Malaria Control Centre to do PCR on samples from a country wide study. The arrival of the new UPS units and PCR equipment from Hopkins was appreciated by the scientific director, who will make good use of this new equipment.
I - General Site Development and Maintenance
The groundskeepers had the campus looking spotless for the visit by the Zambian Vice President and the many other visitors this month, resulting in many comments on how nice the place looked. The bougainvillea planted along the perimeter fence several years ago are finally beginning to grow into a hedge, and their brilliant colors this time of the year are striking. Added to this are the paw-paw trees with their fruit, the stately banana trees blowing in the breeze, and the mango and erythina trees in full bloom.One is reminded that despite no rain for over four months, there is life in the vegetation around us!
The pace of extending the electrical phases to the lab went slowly this month, due to the fact that the volunteer supervising this project (Chet Sollenberger) was asked to also help with some of the preparations for the anniversary celebration at the church. In addition, in order to do the work, power has to be completely shut off to the lab and internet servers. For this reason, power shut-offs were limited to only two hour periods on just a few days a week, so as to not interfere with the lab work and internet access.
II - Construction of Buildings
Despite being nearly completed, the final touches of painting, carpentry and electrical work on the two new staff houses were not finished by month's end, though it is anticipated that these will be completed soon. Tiling in the bathrooms is the major part yet to be completed, and a housing committee is being formed to allocate the staff houses to those staff that have been waiting patiently for the promised accommodation!
The USAID funded one-bedroomed duplex flat remains with kitchen and plumbing details to be completed, while the Hopkins-funded two-bedroomed duplex still has some internal brick work and carpentry work to be done, before painting can be started.
The third staff house (House "C"), is now above slab level, with preliminary brick work being started on the walls. The dormitory has been pegged out, and bricks, sand and crushed rock are hauled and ready for construction to begin.
Local villagers have made over 300,000 bricks for the building project, which we are now beginning to haul from the villages to the construction site in the lorry.
III - Information Technology
Internet access was available throughout the month, though the one VSAT was down for two days when the earth relay station in Italy was struck by lightening. Fortunately, since we now have two VSATs in operation, this outage did not interfere with normal business at MIAM.
More wireless points were being established with USAID project funds, to enable the hospital departments to have internet access.
IV - Vehicles/Transport
Vehicles were utilized less this month due to less field activity. However the FUSO Fighter lorry continues to be heavily used for the building project, both to haul local sand, gravel and bricks, as well as for longer trips to Choma and Lusaka for building supplies. We are continuing to actively pursue the purchase of a replacement truck, since this older one continues to have frequent break-downs with the heavy use.
V - Research Activities
With Dr. Mharakurwa away for part of the month at Yale, the lab was not as active. During the latter part of the month after his return, he worked with a scientist from the National Malaria Control Centre to set up PCRs on samples brought from NMCC. PCR work on the Fitness project, including analysis of malaria carriage rates and genotypes of parasites from mosquitoes that had been previously collected, continued in August. The arrival of the two Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units and two new thermocyclers sent by Hopkins was greatly appreciated.
Data entry continued on the routine malaria hospitalizations, and the field workers were also busy visiting rural health centers to get their data on malaria case load. GIS work and mapping continued as well.
VI - Personnel
A new lab scientist (Taida Kumwenda), accepted an offer of employment at MIAM, and she will begin work on October 1st. The entomology candidate that had planned to visit Macha decided at the last minute not to come, so another candidate is being pursued for this opening.
The Manager for Human Resources, Mr Sunday Chali, submitted his resignation in late August to pursue further education. His duties will be assumed by the Admin Director and overall Director, until a re-assessment of the MIAM management structure can be completed.
VII - Other
The visit to Macha by the Zambian Vice President in August included a tour of the research lab and campus. He was accompanied by various other officials, who were seeing the malaria institute for the first time. Most were impressed with the level of sophistication of the institute, considering it was located in such a rural area!
The old lab is being re-fitted to be used as a clinical research lab, including an inner room set up for TB culture work. Pete Penno spent much time working on the inner partition walls, and equipment for the lab is being procured from various sources to bring it up to its full potential. Dr. Sue Penno, a volunteer here at MIAM with her husband, will be the director of the clinical research lab.
It appears that a Zambian cell phone company, Celtel, will be erecting a cell phone tower near Macha Girls High School by the end of this year. This will hopefully bring cell phone service to the Macha community. A cell tower has already been erected at Mbabala, half way from Choma, within the last month.