Leaving for Gone-Gougou

All-

I am heading out to Doneguebougou tomorrow afternoon. I start my clinical work as a study clinician Monday morning (Gulp!!). Not sure what exactly that means, what I will be doing, how I will be doing it, but I will get by somehow. I am also in the process of planning a drug efficacy study (medspeak for how well patients respond to a drug) on a new antimalarial drug combination that the government of Mali recently adopted as first line therapy. The new combination contains a drug that has been widely used in Chinese medicine for centuries to treat fevers, and only recently isolated and used to treat malaria. This drug, Artemisinin, has shown to be very effective in other countries, and only limited studies have looked at its effectiveness here in Mali. It has also been shown to be even more effective when used in combination with other anti-malarial drugs, even some medications where resistance is high (e.g. chloroquine). It will be a relatively short study and one that will involve from my end: study design, IRB approval, clinical work, laboratory work, and learning about molecular epidemiology, which is a fancy way of describing how health is affected in populations at the molecular level. It is great for me because I will see the whole scientific process in action. A lot of logistics have to be worked out, but it is doable in the time frame I am here. I am very, very excited, about this opportunity, and will keep you updated.

In the other big news, the hurricane has come and gone, and the aftermath that has hit my beloved city is heartbreaking. Everyday I think about what is happening there and the possible short-term and long-term consequences. I guess I will just have to wait and see, and leave the rest in Gods hands. It is so easy at this stage, once the intial shock wears off (if it ever does wear off), to start examining the response and how our leaders are coping with the problem at hand, and putting blame on someone or something. My simple response to that is forget the past, learn from our mistakes, and focus on the living and the future. New Orleans and the entire Gulf South region will make it out of this, albeit at a pace that is congruent with the lifestyle in the Deep South (i.e. very slow). We just have to wait and see how things turn out.

Anyhow, gotta get packed and get ready for tomorrow, and have one last beer at the Terraza before I head out to the bush, where luxuries such as beer and music and everything in between do not really exist.

Love Life, Enjoy Liberty, and Be Happy.

Always,

Craiger