Through the Office of Global Health Education, students traveled to Africa to engage in immersive hands‑on clinical learning and support research in malaria surveillance, offering a deep look at patient care, public health challenges, and the adaptability required to work in low‑resource settings.
Accra, Ghana
Toritseju Kpenosen went to Accra, Ghana, through Child Family Health International. She worked at Princess Mary Louise Hospital where she participated in a wide range of observational and participatory activities–from examining ears with an otoscope to testing for hepatosplenomegaly in patients with sickle cell anemia, to observing hernia repair surgeries and hydrocele (type of swelling in the scrotum) repair surgeries. She was also responsible for collecting histories from patients who were bilingual.
“I also worked with a sonographer who helped me develop my strengths in ultrasounds. Midwives are very important in the maternity unit, and they taught me how to palpate a pregnant mother’s abdomen to feel for fetal structures, like a baby’s leg for instance, and to determine how the baby is positioned.”
Toritseju attended faculty meetings and lectures and especially enjoyed case presentations that discussed unique cases.
Zanzibar, Tanzania
Rachel George went to Zanzibar, Tanzania, for her summer research experience. Her grandparents taught for 20 years in West Africa, while her mom was born at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. With prior experience in immunogenetics, George said she knew she wanted to go to Africa.
When she learned the UNC IDEEL Lab (Infectious Disease Epidemiology & Ecology) was doing malaria research in Tanzania, led by Dr. Jessica Lin, on the tiny island of Zanzibar off the mainland, she wanted to participate in the lab’s studies.
Rachel worked with the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Program (ZAMEP) to conduct household investigations of active malaria cases. She helped collected malaria rapid diagnostic test samples and corresponding data from surveillance software. Then, she spent three weeks in Bagamoyo, another coastal town in Tanzania, and did more experiments.
But in her planning, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to find reagents in Tanzania, a substance or compound essential for her scientific experiments.
“You have to be very adaptable when doing research in low-resource settings, and you really have to prepare for the unexpected.”
“My PI said to bring everything that I needed to Tanzania with me. I had one bag of my personal items and another bag full of pipettes, and other tools, including a bag of reagents.”