Macha Day 2- HIV Clinic

Today we had the amazing opportunity to sit in on Dr. Thuma’s HIV clinic. His father founded the Macha Mission Hospital in the 1950’s and Dr. Thuma has served this community for decades. He founded the Macha Research Trust and is an incredibly dedicated, beloved member of the community.

At the clinic, we learned about the challenges of patient adherence, the burden of travel (some live >80km from the hospital), and HIV monitoring and treatment. The patients were lovely and kind, all dressed in their best clothes for their doctor’s visit. We are so grateful for the experience.

We also had the opportunity to interview the patient enrollment coordinator for Macha Research Trust’s HIV trial. He was an inspiring person, heavily involved in education and programming in the community and provided a wealth of information on HIV and malaria.

After a yummy lunch, Dr. Thuma gave us a full hospital tour. The Macha Mission Hospital consists of a series of buildings, connected by covered walkways. A USAID grant allowed them to build the coveted walkway so patients (for example, mothers mid-delivery) wouldn’t be rained on as they were transferred from one ward to another.

We were struck by how much of a difference was made with a single donation, and how complex the decision making process is; do they repair a building, or purchase more drugs or IVs? The staff here is incredibly skilled at doing the most possible with limited resources.

Quote of the day: “We can’t wait until people walk through the hospital doors. Health starts in the community. We need to try to keep people out of the hospitals.”

It seems like Macha has been very successful in this respect. While 15 years ago, the children’s ward was packed two children to a bed all suffering from malaria, today there were only 4-5 children on the ward.

This rainy season marked the first time there were no deaths from malaria in the area!

At the end of the day, we revisited the Macha labs to learn more about their current large cohort study.

Finally, some amazing Macha researchers brought over a CDC mosquito light net for us to experiment with! We hung it up outside our hostel before dusk.

Cross your fingers that tomorrow morning we’ll have some mosquitoes to share!