Bringing the Blog up to date - August 8, 2010

Well, here is my excuse for falling behind on the blog. Since the 4th of July weekend I have spent every weekend traveling until this one. There have been 2 trips to Swaziland and 2 trips to Kruger Park in South Africa. In addition, for July 21 - August 3 Charlene and Annie were visiting with me, so my spare time away from the lab was occupied with trying to assure that they met all of my friends and colleagues and that they gained an appreciation for life in Maputo. So, for the first time in 6 weeks I am spending a quiet weekend in my Maputo residence. The latter is the third house that I have occupied, and the one that will be my home until I leave for the USA on September 2, 2010. It's large, well-appointed and furnished house inside a gated community with round-the-clock guards. It feels a bit much because right across the street is a community of poor Mozambicans. Maybe I'll walk outside right now to get you a picture of the contrast.

My house is the one with the white fence around it. It is normally occupied by a family with 2 kids. The back yard is on the perimeter of the community so the 6 foot walls are topped off with electrical fencing and razor wire. There is a swimming pool in the back yard. The 2 car garage is not visible because of the lush palm trees. If you look carefully you can see the bars on the windows.

The other house is directly across the street from the entrance gate to my compound. A few of the houses in that community have electricity because I can see an occasional light bulb. There is no running water or indoor sanitation. I don't know the typical occupancy of these little dwellings, but there are lots of little kids running about. We should feel at least a bit thankful whenever we take a nice hot shower.

Let me say a few words about progress in the lab. We have most of what will be needed to be operational on order with delivery expected in the coming weeks. The most expensive items are a water purification system (Milli-Q Elix 5) which I have ordered for a South African affiliate of Millipore and which will be paid for by Beth's ASM grant. From Instituto Nacionale Saude funds we expect a biosafety cabinet, centrifuge and rotor, water bath and miscellaneous small items of lab equipment. I think the lab may be capable of receiving clinical samples by the time I return to the US in September.

For weeks we have been practicing isolation and identification of clinical isolates using borrowed media and leftover cultures form the Cental Hospital lab. I have presented didactic training on Antiseptics/disinfectants, principles and practice of Gram stains, identification of Enterobaccteraceae and Pseudomonadaceae, identification of staphylococci, and have pending presentations on streptococci and vibrios. We also have weekly journal club presentations related to the ongoing meningitis surveillance protocol. So we are busy despite the lack of a fully operational facility and we will be ready to make use of new equipment when it is delivered and installed.. The picture above is of 3 of our best and brightest, from right to left, Jose Paolo Langa, Anisha Prabhu and Lena (unccertain of last name).

I'll update you on my weekend travels about Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland soon.