I recently attended the SHEA/CDC Training Course in Healthcare Epidemiology in Seattle, WA. It offered hands-on workshops on the fundamental aspects of healthcare epidemiology including epidemic investigation. Not that I now can investigate an outbreak all on my own, but I understand the principles and have a better appreciation of the magnitude of the job […]
Dying of AIDS in 2008 in the United States
Since the mid-1990s when combination antiretroviral therapy became available in the United States, HIV has quickly become a chronic condition. “Like diabetes” we often say. AIDS is a problem of “Africa” and other “overseas” nations, the general consensus goes. Yet, in the United States, tens of thousands of people are newly infected with HIV on […]
Infectious Diseases Here I Come
Orientation at my new hospital is this week. I’m going to be an Infectious Diseases fellow (ID fellow) for the next 2 years training to become an Infectious Diseases specialist (ID specialist). Why does everyone wrinkle their nose when they hear this? And why do other medicine folks keep asking me why on earth I want […]
Isolation Precautions at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital
As a budding infectious diseases specialist I am interested in infection prevention. I am doing a two month rotation at The Fevers Unit at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana. It’s a separate building on the campus where people with HIV/AIDS are taken care of. The focus of my rotation is to get more experience taking care […]