Monday was last day of HPV outreach. The PHRI crew was presenting to a father's group, mostly made up of lorry workers. From what I could tell, there was a leader of a local union that worked with Satthya to organize the group. Overall, there were about 60 men that attended the presentation.
The leader wanted to show us around the area. We were located on a main road, but there was a whole new 'world' right behind the buildings that line the street. A world with huge trucks, enormous bags of produce, and scores of men jumping on and off the vehicles.
Tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, and cauliflower are just some of the different produce they were shipping. It gave one a feeling of a 'farmer's market' back home, times 10 and I'm sure the prices are a bit more reasonable.
To be expected, there was also a fair amount of raw vegetable wastage. Naturally, a small herd of cattle keeps the wastage in check.
The lorry drivers have been in the news recently. There was a nation-wide strike among these workers, as a protest to rising petrol prices. The strike was on Wednesday, and the city was eerily quiet. Naomi and I went down to the market, a place normally crowded with people, cars, and animals, but found the streets close to empty. It is remarkable that the city could almost come to a complete halt on such a short notice.
You can read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7486984.stm
RHD study update
The preliminary chart review at Vikram is done. The next step is to contact the patients by phone, in order to gather data about their living conditions. Since I do not speak Kannada, I will be relying on some staff help with the interviews. In the meantime, I am going to begin doing the same chart review at KR Hospital, the local government hospital. We are interested to see if some neighborhoods have a higher incidence of RHD and have been using Google Earth software. Here is a map of Mysore, which is overlayed onto the satellite image of Mysore provided by Google. Pretty cool. (not sure if you can see with this resolution, but the two yellow pins in the upper left side of the map are Vikram and PHRI)
TBA Questionnaire
Over the past week or so, we have developed a beta version of the questionnaire that will be administered to Traditional Birth Attendants. The first day was a bit rough on everyone. We were editing the questionnaire right up until the time we left for the village. Since this was the first time the interviewers had seen the questionnaire, they needed to translate it into Kannada. Due to time constaints, we didn't finish this part. The interview took a little too long, and the TBA was a bit tired towards the end. Here is the TBA trying on a glove from the birthing kits we give each of them.
However, we were able to get some good information. Things could have gone better, but I will chalk it up to being the first time using a new questionnaire. Once the interviewers get accustomed to the questions, things will run a bit smoother. Here's the team!
The lorry drivers have been in the news recently. There was a nation-wide strike among these workers, as a protest to rising petrol prices. The strike was on Wednesday, and the city was eerily quiet. Naomi and I went down to the market, a place normally crowded with people, cars, and animals, but found the streets close to empty. It is remarkable that the city could almost come to a complete halt on such a short notice.
You can read more here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7486984.stm
RHD study update
The preliminary chart review at Vikram is done. The next step is to contact the patients by phone, in order to gather data about their living conditions. Since I do not speak Kannada, I will be relying on some staff help with the interviews. In the meantime, I am going to begin doing the same chart review at KR Hospital, the local government hospital. We are interested to see if some neighborhoods have a higher incidence of RHD and have been using Google Earth software. Here is a map of Mysore, which is overlayed onto the satellite image of Mysore provided by Google. Pretty cool. (not sure if you can see with this resolution, but the two yellow pins in the upper left side of the map are Vikram and PHRI)
TBA Questionnaire
Over the past week or so, we have developed a beta version of the questionnaire that will be administered to Traditional Birth Attendants. The first day was a bit rough on everyone. We were editing the questionnaire right up until the time we left for the village. Since this was the first time the interviewers had seen the questionnaire, they needed to translate it into Kannada. Due to time constaints, we didn't finish this part. The interview took a little too long, and the TBA was a bit tired towards the end. Here is the TBA trying on a glove from the birthing kits we give each of them.
Some cute kids from the village.
Karl took PHRI out to lunch the other day. It was nice to visit with everyone, and I think it was a lot of fun for everyone else. We'll have to get one more picture with Purnima, the director, once she comes on the 17th.
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