December 2008 Report
Summary:
The month of December saw installation of a HOBO weather station at MIAM, augmenting another more basic system that was already running at Dr. Thuma's house.
Research findings were disseminated at international fora, while laboratory and field activities were simultaneously proceeding apace at Macha.
Following hands-on training by Drs. Bill Moss and Tamaki Kobayashi, MIAM laboratory scientists Jodi Chondoka and Sandra Chishimba continued to run RT-PCR and ELISA assays on the EPI study field samples. Lab scientist Mwiche Siame led a field team to investigate the accuracy of pre- and post-treatment saliva-based malaria detection on a group of asymptomatic volunteers from Namwaalinda, using regular blood tests as reference standard.
While the established mouse colony continued to grow in leaps and bounds, the insectary mosquitoes were subjected to the first attempts at adapting their blood-feeding to mice, although they appeared to be off to a slow start by the end of the month.
Lab scientist Sandra Chishimba, UNZA staff development fellow Enesia Chaponda and Dr. Mharakurwa presented three posters and one oral presentation of research findings from Macha in 2008, at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Drs Norris and Mharakurwa also presented their work to an invited CDC (Atlanta) departmental seminar, on December 12, followed by discussion of possible areas of collaboration.
I - General Site Development and Maintenance
Construction of a new sheltered car-park for MIAM vehicles was completed soon after Christmas
Following timely maintenance and compacting, MIAM campus gravel roads remained in good state upon the advent of rains. The notorious Choma-Namwala road was graded all the way from Choma to where tarmac begins towards Niko area, making travel a little easier on the vehicle fleet. It seems that this road may eventually be paved in the New Year, which would tremendously facilitate MIAM operations and bring more development to the general Macha area.
The electrical grid "load shedding" continued without much difference from the previous month, although the outages were slightly reduced in December.
II - Information Technology
The IT system, which had been functioning well for most of November, temporarily continued without connectivity in the beginning of December. However, connection was soon restored and well sustained for the rest of the month.
III - Vehicles/Transport
As usual, all MIAM vehicles continued to run well, thanks to timely repairs and upkeep by the maintenance team. Registration for the newly acquired Landcruiser Prado was completed in Lusaka in mid-December, while also picking up MIAM staff arriving back from the ASTMH conference.
IV - Research Activities
Entomology:
There was continued expansion of the MIAM mouse colony in preparation for adapting insectary mosquitoes to animal blood-feeding. However, the mosquitoes seemed to be making a slow start for most of December.
While plans were discussed for possible capture of more wild Anophelines, it was subsequently agreed that efforts should concentrate on adapting already existing lab-reared lines, rather than trying to introduce new ones. Dr Norris and PhD candidate Christen Fornadel presented entomology research findings at the ASTMH in New Orleans.
Epidemiology:
Lab scientists Jodi Chondoka and Sandra Chishimba continued to run RT-PCR and ELISA assays following training the previous month by Drs Bill Moss and Tamaki Kobayashi. Field data collection and entry continued to proceed smoothly under Harry Hamapumbu's leadership, with more microscopy positives beginning to be found than in the previous month. Differences between the stringent microscopy readings and RDT results continued to be occasionally noted on the mostly low-grade asymptomatic field malaria infections.
Lab scientist Sandra Chishimba presented a poster on schistosomiasis scourge in school children in Chitongo area of Zambia at the ASTMH conference.
Genotyping, Drug Resistance and Diagnostics:
Work was continued examining changes in drug P. falciparum resistance genotypes over time and between human and mosquito phases of the parasite.
Research findings were disseminated at international meetings as follows. Two posters on antimalarial drug resistance, were presented at the ASTMH conference in New Orleans, titled: "The prevalence of the Pfcrt-76 point mutation in Plasmodium falciparum infections of Lusaka urban district, Zambia"; and "Status of the artemisinin resistance-associated ATPase6 S769N mutation in Plasmodium falciparum infections of Lusaka urban district, Zambia". These resulted from MIAM-supervised research by UNZA staff development fellow and MSc student Enesia Chaponda, under the JHMRI/UNZA MoU for Masters student training.
One ASTMH oral presentation was made on the immunochromatographic detection of P. falciparum infection using non-invasive human saliva samples.
One oral presentation was made to a CDC/Atlanta invited departmental seminar, on biased distribution of P. falciparum antifolate drug resistance alleles in the human host.
A field team, headed by lab scientist Mwiche Siame, carried out in vivo pre- and post-treatment surveys on saliva-based malaria detection in a group of asymptomatic P. falciparum carriers from Namwaalinda area. These data will be used to ascertain the accuracy of non-invasive oral-based malaria testing before and after drug treatment, using regular blood-based assays as reference standard.
Pharmacokinetic Study of SP:
A poster on this completed study was presented at the ASTMH meeting in December in New Orleans by the PI, Dr. Myaing Nyunt.
Tuberculosis Study:
Enrolment for the Rifaquin study was slow; during the month of December we were able to enroll our second patient in the study.
HIV/AIDS Study:
The pediatric HIV study continued to enroll HIV infected children from the HIV clinic into the cohort, with 257 enrollments by the end of Dec 2008. Continuous data entry and data cleaning took place in December. An abstract was prepared for the annual HIV/AIDS implementers' meeting, which will be held in Windhoek, Namibia in June 2009.
Hospital Data Collection and Analysis:
Data entry for the paediatric inpatient ward continued as in previous months, expanding a database of detailed case records for all children admitted to Macha Hospital.
Rural Health Centre Malaria Surveillance :
The on-going health centre-based malaria surveillance study continued to run steadily under GIS Manager Aniset Kamanga's supervision, with assistance from Senior Fieldworker Petros Moono. The team also installed a HOBO weather station on the MIAM campus, for longitudinal collection of data on rainfall, temperature, etc in relation to malaria transmission
V - Other
Following her poster presentation at the ASTMH, Sandra Chishimba visited JHMRI and MMI department in Baltimore, where she was introduced to various faculty and other members of staff.
Drs Norris and Mharakurwa presented their research findings at a CDC/Atlanta invited departmental seminar on December 12, followed by discussion for possible future collaboration.
Chishimba and Mharakurwa returned to Macha from the international travel on December 18 and 14, respectively.