May 2007 Report
Summary:
The month of May flew by quickly as malaria studies continued both in the lab and in the field. The newly developed clinical research laboratory began to successfully culture Mycobacterium tuberculosis, using state of the art techniques to assure protection of all workers.
Several meetings and conferences were attended by MIAM staff in May - both in Zambia and outside of the country. Four research abstracts from work at MIAM were submitted for the ASTMH conference to be held in Philadelphia in November this year.
Full internet connectivity was restored early in the month when the C-band VSAT was made operational again with a replacement modem - allowing for excellent connectivity throughout most of the month.
A new laboratory scientist, who is a graduate of University of Zambia, was hired in May to replace the one that resigned earlier this year to pursue medical school.
I - General Site Development and Maintenance
The general upkeep of the MIAM campus continued at a slower pace, since with no more rain in May, the grass stopped its growth.
The newly developed volley ball court on campus was completed and inaugurated in May, with regularly scheduled games now being held among MIAM staff members and others on weekends.
The electrical system on campus functioned well without any breakdowns, other than the frequent electrical outages from the national grid this month, requiring many hours of running the back-up generator. At least one extra trip had to be made to Choma this month to get more diesel for the generator, when the national grid was off for more then 6 hours for each of several days in a row!
There was a brief outage of water one day, when excessive amounts were being used on one of the buildings under construction. This served as a reminder that the present sole well serving the campus will most likely not be enough to support the expanded campus, especially when the two more staff houses are completed, in addition to the new dorm and kitchen/dining facility. Plans are being made to find a site for a new borehole and pump, which will then supplement the current well to assure adequate water supply.
II - Construction of Buildings
Staff House 'C', one of the staff houses constructed with USAD funding neared completion, with final painting work being nearly completed by months end. Staff House 'D' had its foundation slab completed, and brick-laying was begun in the last week of the month.
The kitchen/dining room facility was roofed and about 40% of internal wall plastering completed. Internal electrical work has commenced, as has plumbing work. The large dormitory had most of the roofing trusses in place by the end of the month, with internal wall plastering, electrical wiring and plumbing work beginning.
There is a current shortage of cement in Zambia, leading to an increase in the price, as well as difficulty always finding enough to keep up with the on-going building project! This factor, in addition to the stronger Kwacha versus the US dollar in the latter part of May, is contributing to the building costs going over budget!
III - Information Technology
Internet connectivity remained stable throughout most of the month once the C-band VSAT was back on line, after replacement of the satellite modem in early May. There were some minor problems with the wireless links within the campus, but these were solved after a re-boot of the system!
The server that hosts the Lasergene software suite, for handling DNA/RNA sequence data, was down for much of the month - and after many hours of trouble-shooting it was finally brought back on-line, though that proved short-lived. It is hoped that providing it with its own UPS, which was purchased late in the month, will help solve this problem.
IV - Vehicles/Transport
Vehicles remained very heavily used for field work this month, with many kilometers being put on them. The Pajero remained off the road and was finally taken to Lusaka for repairs, since our local mechanics failed to get the fuel system working properly, despite replacing several parts and replacing filters, etc.
The daily heavy and rough-road and frequent 'non-road' use of the vehicles for the field projects, resulted in the old Toyota Hilux being involved in a minor accident, when it side-swiped a tree while passing through a narrow area on a remote bush path. The side mirror was broken off and a long scrape put into the vehicle body for more than half the length of the vehicle. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Funds budgeted to purchase another vehicle for field work have still not been released, and with cash flow problems due to the slow release of reimbursement for the on-going running costs of the various field projects, there remains a possibility that eventually all the vehicles will be in poor shape to do the necessary field work!
V - Research Activities
Entomology: Spray catch mosquito collection work for Dr. Norris' Entomology project came to an end in May, as the Anopheline vectors essentially disappeared from houses that were involved in the spray catches. The project will start up again nearer to the time of the expected rains late in the year.
The insectary continued to keep an anopheline colony going, with the hard work of our resident entomologist. Quotes were obtained for a programmable automatic light control apparatus for the insectary, and hopefully this can be bought in the future to alleviate the many hours involved in doing light control by hand!
A trip was made to Namwala to evaluate locations for trapping mosquitoes outdoors using the new electrically-charged grids. The District Director of Health was welcoming, and willing to work with the team in setting up the project locally.
Epidemiology and GIS/Demographic Surveilance: The Moss/Shah Epidemiology Pilot study, being coordinated locally by the MIAM Field Work Manager, continued to carry out activities in the field every day. The data being collected from the many questionnaires has begun to be entered into the web-based database at Hopkins, though late in the month a halt was requested by Hopkins on data entry, until the database system could be modified to work better.
Data previously collected on malaria epidemiology, both from the field-based GIS and demographic surveillance work as well as hospital-based collections, continued to be cleaned and analyzed. An abstract was submitted for the ASTMH conference on the change in the pediatric blood transfusion pattern at Macha, which has been associated with the marked changes in hospital malaria admissions in recent years, suggesting that monitoring of pediatric blood transfusions in countries may be one way of detecting changes in malaria incidence.
Molecular Biology: The PCR and electrophoretic equipment in the molecular biology lab was kept working at a constant level, as several projects were on-going under Dr. Mharakurwa's direction. Data for three abstracts that were submitted for the ASTMH conference was developed, including work on optimizing mosquito PCR methodology, malaria drug resistance markers present in mosquitoes, and optimization of PCR methods to determine relapse versus recrudescence after malaria treatment. While all the equipment worked well throughout the month, keeping enough reagents and other supplies available was a constant challenge! In addition to the full time lab scientists, there was help from a graduate student from the University of Zambia working on her Masters degree in Parasitology, as well as on-going work by a Hopkins MPH student who extended her time at Macha to help with the projects.
Tuberculosis Studies: The TB lab in the new Clinical Research lab successfully initiated culturing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis this month, with the help of two Dutch medical students currently at MIAM. This facility is now ready to accommodate the new multi-centre TB drug study, which will be under the direction of Dr. Janneke van Dijk as the local Principal Investigator. Late in the month all Zambian ethical and pharmaceutical regulatory authority approvals were given for the study to proceed.
Schistosomiasis Studies: A snail collection has been established in the MIAM lab to allow for the collection of schistosomal cercariae for future studies under the direction of Dr. Shiff.
VI - Personnel
A University of Zambia graduate, Mr. Mtawa Mkulama was hired in May as a Lab Scientist in the Molecular Biology lab to replace the lab scientist who left some months ago to enter medical school.
During the month Dr. Thuma attended meetings in both Lusaka and Livingstone, the one to give a presentation to CDC Blood Safety people looking at blood transfusions and their relationship to malaria control; the other with Presidential Malaria Initiative (PMI) people from the USA on the future plans for PMI work in Zambia.
Dr. Mharakurwa attended the First Annual Research Planning Meeting on Science, Technology and Innovation held in Lusaka, which proved to be an opportunity to meet many other scientists in Zambia working in various fields, including the health sector.
Dr. Janneke van Dijk attended an International Workshop on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention Research in Resource-poor Settings, which was held in Uganda.
VII - Other
The regularly scheduled monthly management and staff meetings continued, with on-going dialogue on the purpose, mission and vision statements being developed for MIAM.