Paul Farmer

I was asked to update my blog, and was also notified that another follower has been added to my list, bringing the official total to 2: my aunt Penny and my boyfriend Tyler. Thanks to both of you for being supportive, and especially thanks to Penny for being the only one who ever comments on my thoughts, haha, although I know there are more people out there who might be reading, and for that I'm thankful.

I just had the priviledge of attending a lecture by Dr. Paul Farmer, who is a complete rock star and visionary in the arena of global public health. He's a Harvard Med professor and grad, and founder of the Partners in Health organization, which now operates in 10 countries around the globe including Haiti and Rwanda. I've had to read several of his articles in preparation for my Kampala trip, and have a copy of one of his best selling books, "The Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor," if anyone wants to borrow it.

The medical model that he promotes is one of community-based health care and accompaniment. One of the major problems in treating HIV/AIDS is the level of commitment required for the Anti-retroviral drugs to work. If taken regularly and according to protocol, nearly 98% of patients experience a reduction in their viral load and an increase in their CD4 T-cell counts. However, if taken sporadically, the virus becomes resistant to the ARV drugs and becomes even more powerful, and people with higher viral loads are more contagious than those with lower, and even nonrecognizable viral loads. Dr. Farmer argues that in addition to pouring money into getting drug treatment for infected people both here and abroad, we have a responsibility to make sure that the patients are taking the drugs regularly, are experiencing follow up care, and are being surrounded in a social network of support and understanding. He gave a comparison between rural Haiti and inner-city Atlanta, and found that in Haiti, with the community health workers checking in on their patients frequently, only 2 out of 233 patients became resistant to the first line treatment of ARV drugs in the 10 years following treatment. In Atlanta, however, only 13% of patients being treated recieved any sort of reduction in viral load or increase in T-cell count, and became drug-resistant very quickly.

It was an interesting picture of our instant gratification society, and how much we value independence and autonomy to a fault at times. These patients did not want people "looking over their shoulders," but in the absence of very frequent follow-up care, more than 3/4 of them where unable to stick to their prescribed regimine.

Dr. Famer talked a lot about the need for advocacy, the problem of "brain drain" in developing countries (native citizens who become educated and then leave their native countries to practice or work elsewhere do to insufficient salaries, lack of resources/medicines/equipments, etc), and how some faith-based organizations are hurting the cause by discouraging the use of condoms (in supporting abstinence instead), and needle-turnover programs.

All in all, it was very interesting and I'm super glad I had the opportunity to hear him speak. I was pleased to see sooo many of my friends and classmates there who also have a passion for the poor, especially overseas.

Other updates include that my flights are officially booked! I leave from Columbus on May 1st and leave Entebbe, Uganda on June 1st! I'll start work at Y Camp on June 8th so it'll be nice to have a week to recover from jet lag and culture shock. I got the second dose of my malaria pills, and have now met 2 people who contracted malaria while in Africa...and it doesn't sound like fun! I'll be taking them regularly, wearing DEET insect repellent and will have a misquito net over my bed. I'm hoping to take a trip up to Gulu in Northern Uganda during one of the weekends in order to visit the Village of Hope Orphanage and Gladys, who is the 6 year old girl I'm sponsoring at the IDP camp up there. We will also be taking a trip one weekend to go rafting down the Nile! It should be quite the experience.

Well, that's enough for now. More updates later!