LeishMANIA!
Friday morning's leprosy clinic was fantastic.
We got to see someone with a claw hand from ulnar nerve damage, a kid with an extensively scarred arm from a reaction, and someone who was presenting for the first time with a gigantic arm lesion. That last visit was tough; she was crying and terrified because of course nobody wants to be A Leper. We followed her to pathology to see them take a little lymph from both earlobes, both elbows, and the lesion itself for a smear. The pathologist did a great job of calming her down, and we did some limited chatting afterwards while she waited for her ride. The claw hand patient was also a good time because the occupational therapist walked us through much of what I've completely forgotten about the forearm: radial nerve vs. ulnar nerve vs. median nerve, wrist drop, claw hand, etc. Now that I'm writing it out, I realize I've forgotten it again. It just will not stick!
So leprosy is interesting because while you can kill all the bacteria with antibiotics, the little dead bacilli persist in your cells for years and periodically provoke severe reactions from your immune system. That's where a lot of the serious damage comes from, and that's part of the reason why it's considered a chronic disease. Also interesting: Mycobacterium Leprae reproduces so ridiculously slowly that it has never been cultured in a dish.
It's looking like we're not going to go to Mosorró to do leprosy work for the last three weeks of our trip. I'm pleased, because if we went it would seriously curtail our progress with the leishmaniasis study, and we absolutely need that data to have a successful summer. Calazar doesn't have as much curb appeal as leprosy, but it's still a pretty exciting disease. If nothing else, it's much more deadly (it will totally kill you without treatment).
So Pooja and I took a bus four hours north to Recife, the second-largest city in the Northeast after Salvador. It's definitely more city-like than Natal (which is, however, the third-largest city), but still not... not a lot of tall buildings. Not like Salvador or São Paulo. Saturday we walked around Recife Antiguo and the city center, which was taken completely over by a giant street market. Michael Jackson's songs were blaring from every corner. I got a bag of jackfruit, and for one delicious minute I felt like I was back in Bangkok.
Oh it's time to go meet with Selma. More later.
We got to see someone with a claw hand from ulnar nerve damage, a kid with an extensively scarred arm from a reaction, and someone who was presenting for the first time with a gigantic arm lesion. That last visit was tough; she was crying and terrified because of course nobody wants to be A Leper. We followed her to pathology to see them take a little lymph from both earlobes, both elbows, and the lesion itself for a smear. The pathologist did a great job of calming her down, and we did some limited chatting afterwards while she waited for her ride. The claw hand patient was also a good time because the occupational therapist walked us through much of what I've completely forgotten about the forearm: radial nerve vs. ulnar nerve vs. median nerve, wrist drop, claw hand, etc. Now that I'm writing it out, I realize I've forgotten it again. It just will not stick!
So leprosy is interesting because while you can kill all the bacteria with antibiotics, the little dead bacilli persist in your cells for years and periodically provoke severe reactions from your immune system. That's where a lot of the serious damage comes from, and that's part of the reason why it's considered a chronic disease. Also interesting: Mycobacterium Leprae reproduces so ridiculously slowly that it has never been cultured in a dish.
It's looking like we're not going to go to Mosorró to do leprosy work for the last three weeks of our trip. I'm pleased, because if we went it would seriously curtail our progress with the leishmaniasis study, and we absolutely need that data to have a successful summer. Calazar doesn't have as much curb appeal as leprosy, but it's still a pretty exciting disease. If nothing else, it's much more deadly (it will totally kill you without treatment).
So Pooja and I took a bus four hours north to Recife, the second-largest city in the Northeast after Salvador. It's definitely more city-like than Natal (which is, however, the third-largest city), but still not... not a lot of tall buildings. Not like Salvador or São Paulo. Saturday we walked around Recife Antiguo and the city center, which was taken completely over by a giant street market. Michael Jackson's songs were blaring from every corner. I got a bag of jackfruit, and for one delicious minute I felt like I was back in Bangkok.
Oh it's time to go meet with Selma. More later.