My Journey in the Kingdom of Swaziland: Day 52: Swazi Holiday and Braai

Why am I in Swaziland?

HIV is a global pandemic and claimed the lives of millions of people all over the world. One of my hopes is that there will be a cure for HIV during or after my lifetime. Not only do I believe in physical healing of HIV, but I also believe in spiritual healing by faith in God. God has called me to act on this issue and my work here in Swaziland is being done to bring Him glory. By the grace of God, I was accepted into the Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program offered by the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health. Due to my passion for HIV research and prevention, I was selected to conduct research on the barriers to antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation among HIV-positive children 2 to 18 months of age in Swaziland. With the relatively high rate of HIV among pregnant women and the relatively low rate of children initiated on ART in comparison to adults in Swaziland, this a major public health concern within the country.

What am I doing?

Just to get an idea of what I will be blogging about, I will be implementing a research project on the barriers to antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation among HIV-positive children 2-18 months of age in Swaziland. I will be carrying out the study at several different health facilities in Swaziland with my research partner and fellow MHIRT trainee, Chantal Harris, who also attends the University of Florida. Our main job is to carry out the study by following the research protocol with the assistance of data clerks, the primary investigators, public health stakeholders, and doctors associated with the project and ART initiation among children. The research project is also funded by UNICEF, which allowed us to hire data clerks to assist with data extraction, survey administration, and the facilitation of focus groups for the study.

Who do I work with?

My fellow MHIRT trainee, Chantal Harris, will be working on the research project with me all summer. She also will be living with me in Dr. Peter Preko's guest house in Mbabane, Swaziland. Dr. Preko is our host and mentor as well as one of the primary investigators of the research study. Dr. Pauline Jolly is also a primary investigator for this research project and also the director of the MHIRT program at UAB. Mrs. Nobuhle Mthethwa is another one of the primary investigators and is the National Paediatric ART Officer of the Swaziland National AIDS Program (SNAP) of the Ministry Of Health (MoH). We have four data clerks helping us to carry out the study, which are two Swazi women, Nelisiwe (Neli for short) and Nozipho, and two Swazi men, Ndumiso and Sibusiso. Two other fellow MHIRT trainees, Jessica and ShaCoria, are also here in Swaziland for 12 weeks, but they are implementing a different project (association between HIV status and cervical cancer among women) and live with a host family in Manzini, Swaziland. The UNICEF budget for the research budget also rendered us the opportunity to hire two drivers from Affordable Car Hire (Smangaliso and Sipho) to take us from clinic to clinic.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Day 52: Swazi Holiday and Braai

So since today was a national holiday in Swaziland (birthday of the Late King Sobhuza), Dr. Sarah invited us to a get-together at her house with Braai! We also played field games such as water balloon toss, three legged race, wheel barrow race, and egg toss with other staff from Baylor as well as staff from Clinton Health Access Initiative - Swaziland (CHAI). It was really fun! Dr. Sarah's house is beautiful and very affordable from what she told me and the girls (Chantal, Jessica, and ShaCoria). The girls and I also went strawberry picking. Chantal decided to stay home today and apply to graduate visitation programs. Since Chantal didn't come with us, we planned a prank on her and got a few of the remaining water balloons home to throw at her! When we lured her out of the guest house, she was suspicious initially, which is why we waited a few minutes to throw the balloons at her. And when we finally did, the balloons either missed her or rolled right off her back without popping on her!

During the evening, Chantal and I made a plan for data collection tomorrow. Since we have to amend our protocol with the assistance from Nobuhle and Dr. Padilla, MHIRT program assistant, at UAB, we had to send emails out notifying Dr. Jolly that we having difficulties with finding cases for the study and that we have to expand our study and reach more clinics. So we planned on going to one of Baylor's satellite locations, Raleigh Fitkin Memorial (RFM) Hospital, and begin data collection there since our protocol just specifies that Baylor was approved as a clinic site for the study, without mentioning the specified branch of Baylor. We also set a date and time to hold the focus groups for the controls for our study, which will take place at Baylor COE in Mbabane next Tuesday, July 29 and at RFM Baylor COE next Wednesday, July 30 at 9:30am. So now we have to figure out how we will get food for our focus groups using the UNICEF budget and prepare travel reimbursement funds for our participants.