March 2007 Report
Summary:
March proved to be a very busy month at MIAM, with many activities and nearly constant use of the vehicles. With three field studies running at the same time, the resources both in personnel as well as vehicles were stretched thin, but all the projects managed to carry out the planned activities.
Dr. Mharakurwa spent two weeks at JHSPH in Baltimore, attending the annual Hopkins malaria research conference and presenting his work. While he was away, his lab remained busy with two volunteers plus others working long hours on PCR work.
The new C band VSAT modem and LAN continued to be worked on during the month, and by month's end the internet access was nearly back to the "normal" level that we had experienced before the major VSAT "crash" in January. However, the last week of March a direct lightening strike on the Wireless LAN tower took out a relay box, leaving only one wireless transmitter in the tower in good working condition. This was re-directed to feed the MIAM campus and administrative offices, leaving the Vision internet cafe and the hospital without internet access via the WLAN, until further repairs can be done.
I - General Site Development and Maintenance
March saw nearly as much rainfall as February (82 mm vs 100 mm), but there were several long periods without rain, allowing field work to continue. There were certainly fewer times that the MIAM vehicles were stuck in the mud when compared to January, when the total monthly rainfall was 390 mm! With the continued rain in March, keeping the grass cut on the expanding MIAM campus kept several workers busy every day with slashing. The senior groundskeeper also took the time to design and implement a new "welcome garden" situated near the administrative offices (see picture).
Various maintenance projects were carried out, including a re-design of the cattle grid at the main road entrance, to allow for better drainage of the water that was collecting in the grid and providing a breeding site for mosquitoes! Gravel was also hauled for road repairs of the on-campus roads that had been washed out in the previous months.
The two Toyota double-cab pickups used for field work were out nearly every day of the week this month, and they took a heavy beating on the rough roads. This required frequent repairs, often done very early in the morning, before they had to go out. We were glad for the welding unit bought from a donation, since it saved many trips to the welding shop! One of the MIAM general workers (who was taught to weld by Chet Sollenberger, a frequent volunteer from the US), has managed to become quite adept at repairing broken bumpers and other parts that vibrate apart or get broken from hitting stumps and rocks!
II - Construction of Buildings
The large 10 bed-roomed dormitory continues to make good progress, with all of the brick work nearly completed to wall-plate level. The kitchen/dining hall situated next to it is now nearly to the same level. With the price of cement raising nearly 30% in recent weeks due to a shortage in the country, the final cost of the building will be considerably more than originally estimated! The funds that were to be released by USAID for the project in early March had still not been released by the end of the month, making cash available for the project a problem.
The three bed-roomed staff house (House "C") continued to have internal finishing work completed, with some painting begun of the ceiling board, doors and window frames. The electrical and plumbing work is nearly complete.
House "D" has the footers all poured and foundation work nearly completed to the floor slab level.
III - Information Technology
March saw restoration of the C band VSAT to operation with installation of a new satellite modem and re-orientation of the large receiver disk to a different satellite. Despite this progress, the quality of internet access remained sub-optimal for much of the month. By month's end, after multiple tweaks and some changes made by the IT Consultant in an effort to decrease virus and spam assaults, the broadband throughput was finally improved and allowed for fairly consistent internet access. Email access was available through out the month.
A direct lightening strike on the tower that houses the wireless local area network (WLAN) boxes occurred in late March, resulting in an outage of the relay system of the WLAN to the MIAM campus and administrative offices. After inspection of the system, it was found that only one of the boxes survived, and its signal was re-directed to the MIAM campus, resulting in restoration of signal to the campus, but loss of signal to the Vision Internet cafe and the hospital. It is hoped that a replacement can soon be found and give internet access back to others in the community, though this may also provide the opportunity for a newer WLAN system to be installed.
The discussion on the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between MIAM and LinkNet continued during the month, but a final agreement is yet to be signed, pending further negotiations and understandings.
IV - Vehicles/Transport
Keeping all the MIAM vehicles on the road in March remained one of the biggest challenges, as there was continued and daily use of the two Toyota double cab pickups for the field work. This required frequent repairs on the vehicles, often carried out early in the morning, since the vehicles were needed every day and often all day. This system is less than ideal, since with such heavy and daily use, there was no time to carry out routine maintenance and servicing of the vehicles.
The Condor and Ford Everest were also used for MIAM business frequently, and continued to run well. One of the older motorcycles developed an oil leak, and until a replacement part can be found, it had to be taken off the road.
The old FUSO truck continued to be used nearly daily to haul bricks, sand, gravel and rocks for the building project , while the newer and more reliable FUSO truck was used for trips to Choma and Lusaka to haul cement, lumber and other building supplies.
It had been originally hoped that by the time the Epidemiology Pilot project was beginning, an additional field work vehicle and two more motorcycles would be available, but with the 2007 budget from Hopkins still not finally approved, this was not the case. While the Pajero was originally bought for field work, it has not been routinely used by the scientists for this work due to its lower clearance, and so plans are being made to sell it and put the proceeds, after taxes, towards another double cab vehicle.
V - Research Activities
PCR work on the various projects under Dr. Maharakurwa's supervision continued unabated in the molecular biology lab. Two volunteers, one a graduate from UNZA and one from Hopkins, worked alongside the two MIAM lab personnel carrying out PCR protocols. A replacement for the lab scientist that resigned in February to go to med school has not yet been hired, pending the arrival of Dr Clive Shiff to help in the interviewing process.
There was also use of the lab bench space for the entomology projects, with identification of mosquitoes that had been caught and trapped in the various field locations, as well as identification of those hatched that had been obtained from larval sites. A new freezer was bought to store the increasing numbers of samples, and a second freezer will be purchased in early April. With the increased numbers of people working in the lab, new lab stools were also bought to accommodate the needs.
The insectary remained a place with lots of activity this month as larva were brought in from the field and raised to adulthood. The Hopkins post-doc Dr. Julie Clennon spent many long hours with MIAM staff finding larval breeding sites and mapping them. The collected larvae were brought into the insectary to grow, and then later identification was made of the adult mosquito species once emerged. This information will give a more complete picture of which mosquito species breed at each site.
Other entomology work was carried out by Christen Fornadel, the new Ph D student from Hopkins. Her supervisor from Hopkins, Dr Doug Norris, spent two weeks at Macha during March orienting and training her for the project. Using landing catches, spray catches and CDC traps, she collected sufficient quantities of mosquitoes in a new area (Grids E8 and E9 - near the Miyobe area), to allow her to build up additional vector data in addition to that collected in recent years and this year in Chidakwa and Lupata.
Dr. Snehal Shah came back to Macha from Hopkins the end of March to initiate the Epidemiology Pilot study in the area east of Macha. After getting all the final approvals from the two ethics committees (UNZA REC in Zambia and the JHSPH IRB in Baltimore), the approved consent forms were photocopied and the various questionnaire forms printed up for use. The study planned to begin screening participants the first Monday of April.
The on-going geographical reconnaissance study, now in its 4th year, continued to collect malaria prevalence data and mosquito species data from the various selected grid areas.
During March, MIAM hosted a pre-study inspection team from the EDCTP sponsored TB drug trial, due to start under Dr Janneke van Dijk's supervision, as soon as all ethical clearances have been finalized. This was subsequent to Dr van Dijk traveling to South Africa for a meeting of the various Principal Investigators on this multi-site study.
The Kumar/LeBlanc Immune study in the Chitongo area continued to be monitored by a MIAM fieldworker, with Dr LeBlanc expected to return in early April for further work in collecting samples from the study participants.
VI - Personnel
No new MIAM personnel were hired in March, though a letter of offer was made to an IT technical assistant, Mr Raphael Mweetwa, and he will begin work for MIAM in April as the person responsible for upkeep of all the MIAM computers.
Dr. Mharakurwa spent about two weeks in the USA during the month, attending the Hopkins annual Malaria conference, presenting a paper and having discussions with collaborators at Hopkins.
Dr. Janneke van Dijk attended a work shop on TB treatment in Johannesburg, South Africa.
VII - Other
Among the visitors to MIAM in March was a student from UNZA, Mr. Israel Ndayambaje, who is looking for a field sight to undertake his Master thesis work for his degree at UNZA. His supervisor Prof Baboo, has encouraged him to work with the scientists at MIAM on this project.