June 2006 Report
Summary:
June brought cold weather to the Macha area, and with the climate change, the mosquitoes disappeared as did most of the malaria cases! Despite this, the research lab kept quite busy on PCR work from the back-load of collected samples. There was also field work on the GIS project, re-mapping grid areas to document the new village homesteads built since the original survey work in 2004.
The USAID funded building project continued to make good progress, with completion of the two staff houses and the one bed-roomed duplex projected by mid August. The work on the Hopkins-funded two bed-roomed duplex is also moving along, but is behind the other buildings.
An advertisement was placed in the national newspaper to recruit two additional staff members, an entomologist and a lab scientist to replace Mr. Christopher Simoloka, who has resigned from MIAM.
I - General Site Development and Maintenance
The grounds area continues to look attractive with flowers in various spots, and the bougainvillea planted along the fence is beginning to bloom nicely in some areas.
Maintenance work continued, with 21 call-outs for repairs recorded by the maintenance staff, including 9 urgent calls for repairs.
With on-going issues of low voltage being experienced in the lab and impacting the sensitive lab equipment, plans were made to run two more electrical phases to the office and lab complex, in order to try and better balance the load and hopefully minimize the low voltage situation experienced from the national grid supplier, ZESCO. A high quality UPS has also been ordered by JHMRI to be placed in the lab to try and stabilize the voltage for the equipment.
II - Construction of Buildings
Painting, plumbing and final electrical and carpentry work was being done at month's end on the two staff houses, with a projection that they should be completed in 4 to 6 weeks. The one bed-roomed duplex still needs to have floors poured and electrical and carpentry work is in progress. Final wall plastering was in process in the two bed-roomed duplex. Due to slowness in the release of funds from USAID, some plumbing and window glass supplies had not yet been bought for the Staff Houses and one bed-roomed duplex, but this should hopefully be overcome in early July when more funds are due to be released.
Bricks have begun to be hauled in anticipation of starting the foundations for the hostel and one additional staff house on the USAID project. Contracts have been signed with bricklayers for foundation and wall work.
With the slight rebound of the Kwacha:$ rate in June the buying power from the grant improved, but it is still 27% lower than when the grant was written, and the prices of building supplies in Zambia have actually gone up since then, not down!
Chet Sollenberger, an experienced builder and plumber, returned to MIAM with his wife in June to volunteer for three months on the construction project. This is the fourth time he has volunteered on the project. He will work with Pete Penno and Denimon Muunta, and will take primary responsibility for the plumbing aspect of the building project, and also oversee the additional electrical lines to the lab as well as the new construction area.
III - Information Technology
Thirteen new computers (three of them laptops) were purchased with USAID funds for MIAM and installed by Mr van Stam and his assistants. This has increased to three the number of computers committed for data entry, and made computers now available in each MIAM office, including an additional one in the research lab.
With the help of several volunteers, major changes were made to the IT servers in June, with the hope that the system will be more stable and more amenable to newer applications. The new computers in the IT room include a file server, an applications server and an asterisk server. The latter is a system for voice communication over the internet, and can be potentially used as an internal phone system. A diagram illustrating the layout of the current IT system is posted on the web page link for pictures associated with this report.
IV - Vehicles/Transport
The vehicles and motorcycles continued to be extensively used, with 5,172 kms put on the five vehicles, 2,099 kms on the FUSO lorry and 1,359 kms on the three motorcycles during the month of June. On-going running costs, maintenance and repairs for vehicles remain a large budget item, with expenditures of over $3,000 in June. This included spares for the Pajero (mainly a set of four new shock absorbers) that had to be ordered from Japan and cost over $1,000 delivered to Zambia.
In light of the fact that the FUSO truck is having breakdowns on a frequent basis, and has actually out-lived the life we had originally projected for it when it was bought, we are looking into acquiring another second hand truck from Japan to replace it.
V - Research Activities
Mr. Aniset Kamaanga arrived back at MIAM in early June, after spending two weeks in Baltimore with Tim Shields on GIS training. He brought back a new GPS unit with enhanced capabilities, and this unit was put to use during the month in the upgrading of data from the study grids, including the plotting of new homesteads that had been started since the original mapping carried out in 2004. The GIS data is now being entered into a new laptop he also brought back that has better storage and memory capabilities.
PCR work in the research lab on samples from the Fitness study was the main research activity of Dr. Mharakurwa, with some frustrations as the two newer thermocyclers continued to have frequent stoppages due to the voltage fluctuations. This was despite buying UPS units in Lusaka the previous month, to try and stabilize the voltage and avoid the problems. Two better (and much more expensive) UPS units have now been ordered from the UK by JHMRI for the MIAM lab, and are expected in July. In addition, another thermocycler system has been bought by JHMRI and will be shipped to Macha, consisting of a central computerized unit with satellite thermocyclers. It is hoped that eventually with all these units in place and operating properly, the problems with thermocyclers will no longer be a limiting factor in getting the work done!
Two undergraduates from Messiah College have stayed on after the course that was taught earlier on site, and are carrying out PCR on blood filter paper samples collected from the Malarial Anemia Study. The purpose of the project is to examine the hypothesis that different strains of malaria parasite, as determined by genetic "fingerprinting" of MSP1 and MSP2 alleles, may contribute to whether a patient gets severe malaria or does not.
On-going discussions and regular meetings are now being held at JHMRI to determine the best way to utilize the facilities at MIAM in the coming years. Various sub-groups have been formed, and outlines of possible research projects carried out at MIAM are being formulated. In addition, MIAM has been approached by MACEPA and NMCC to take the lead in setting up an operational research project in the Choma District to monitor and evaluate the malaria control scale up efforts being made by the government. The evolving concept of the project would be to develop a system to gather good solid data on not only the scale-up process, but also the effects of such scale up on malaria morbidity and mortality. On going discussion of how such a program would fit with the on-going research program at MIAM, are in process.
Clinical cases of malaria at the hospital reduced in June, with only two deaths attributed to malaria recorded in the children's ward. See the web link associated with pictures for this report for a graphic of malaria case load this season, as compared to previous seasons.
VI - Personnel
The lab manager for the past two years, submitted his resignation in June, having not yet completed the university degree that he was required to have. He has found a new job working in a lab in Chilanga.
VII - Other
MIAM advertised nationally in late June to recruit two new staff members with Bachelor's degrees in Biology. The one will be a lab scientist, while the other one is expected to take up a new role of entomologist, and will be in charge of all the mosquito work, both in the field and in the insectary. The successful entomology recruit will be trained both in Baltimore and in South Africa.