After spending a 3 week vacation over the holidays in the States, I am now back at work. Not much has changed in Malawi while I was gone except for the wards and it seems like there are a lot more expats at the Shack that I don't recognize. Pediatric Ward A (the acute ward) has drastically changed. I took one step in that place and the (even worse) stench, hot humid air, and sounds of crying babies was so overwhelming that I had to take a quick break in the hallway before checking the place out. It smelled. bad. After taking a breather, I went in and assessed the differences. Malawi is now in the "green season" and with the rains come malaria, malnutrition, and other sicknesses. Instead of there being 2 babies to a bed (plus mom), there are 3 babies per bed and more beds in the ward, it's pretty crowded and a lot of the kids do not look good. It's only the beginning, so I can't imagine what the ward will look like in the coming weeks and how crazy the study I'm working on will be.
In other news, I went to the high risk nursery today with Amy to echo conjoined twins. They were born the night before and were connected by the front of the chest. They each had a set of arms (so it looked like they were hugging each other), but only had one set of legs. It was almost as if the bottom half forgot to split. Pretty crazy!
I am also now working on 2 different projects, both pediatric. One is on HIV and cardiac function based in the Baylor HIV clinic, so more of an outpatient setting. The other is on TB and malnutrition among inpatient kids on Ward A and should be pretty hectic. Should be an exciting next 5 months!
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