Information Session for Yale/Stanford Global Health Scholars Program 2020 - South Africa
December 03, 2020ID5958
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- 00:00Alright, so I want to start by
- 00:02thanking you for inviting me here to
- 00:05speak tonight and also for thanking
- 00:07you for having you participate.
- 00:09Participate in this program.
- 00:10It was a wonderful experience
- 00:12and I'm glad to share.
- 00:13You know what experiences I had?
- 00:15So with that said,
- 00:16I'll go ahead and share my screen.
- 00:19Let's see. So it says I cannot start.
- 00:21Share screen while other
- 00:23people are are sharing.
- 00:25Oh sorry, I thought I had stopped myself.
- 00:28There you go. Sorry Andrew, no problem.
- 00:30So let me go ahead and share my
- 00:33PowerPoint so I don't need to repeat.
- 00:36But Johnson and Johnson Global elective,
- 00:38but it's me, Andy Abovyan,
- 00:40and so let's go ahead and get started.
- 00:44So I went to South Africa and specifically
- 00:46to Yellow Ferry, South Africa.
- 00:48When you think it SA,
- 00:50you may think of Table Mountain
- 00:52in Cape Town and safaris.
- 00:54Those are all very true.
- 00:55Awesome things,
- 00:56places to go big centers but to kill
- 00:59Harry is not a big you know city and
- 01:02it's not in a really happening part
- 01:04of South Africa which is really why I
- 01:07was drawn there because it's kind of
- 01:10in the middle of nowhere and it's in
- 01:12a very resource limited environment.
- 01:14Which is so different from yeah
- 01:16I wanted to go and experience an
- 01:18environment like this somewhere.
- 01:20I've never been before,
- 01:21'cause then it would be a really
- 01:23great learning experience and
- 01:24so that's where I chose to go.
- 01:26And I went to Kwa Zulu Natal,
- 01:28which is a province in South South Africa.
- 01:31Acts pretty much marks the spot here
- 01:33and you can see that it's about two
- 01:36or over 2 hours away from Durbin
- 01:38which is the closest like coastal city.
- 01:41And to give some idea about why I
- 01:43chose this as a place to go and
- 01:46because it was a really unique.
- 01:48Setting so these are.
- 01:50Demographics of the small town from 2011,
- 01:53and so the population is like 2097% black.
- 01:57The first language is Zulu,
- 01:59while English is spoken like pretty much
- 02:02everywhere and the large cities in Cape Town,
- 02:05Johannesburg.
- 02:05Here English is not the predominant language.
- 02:0829% unemployed TBD incidents was
- 02:10pretty high per 100,000 and for
- 02:13pretty staggering was a population
- 02:15weighted HIV prevalence of like
- 02:1736% in this age Group 15 to 49.
- 02:21So I knew going there automatically,
- 02:22I would be seeing things that I
- 02:24necessarily have seen patients with
- 02:26diseases that I've never seen before,
- 02:27and this would really allow me to kind of
- 02:30see population that's completely unique
- 02:31to me and they can learning experience.
- 02:34And so where I went was the
- 02:35Church of Scotland Hospital.
- 02:37You can kind of see the top of
- 02:39the hospital here in this photo.
- 02:41This is the hospital and then
- 02:43the rest of the town.
- 02:44And so I don't want to bore
- 02:46you with the details.
- 02:47But it was established along
- 02:49time ago as a missionary.
- 02:50Since then it's.
- 02:51Being converted to a government hospital and
- 02:54it serves a huge area like 200,000
- 02:56people in their region spanning
- 02:57over 2000 square kilometers.
- 02:59It's pretty large with 350 beds.
- 03:01There's an antiretroviral clinic and ER,
- 03:031X in the last time I heard two ultrasounds,
- 03:06but that was like a year ago,
- 03:09so I'm not sure if the
- 03:11other one still working.
- 03:12There is basic Labs Micro sent out and not
- 03:15many physicians is a full time positions.
- 03:18And then there's usually two to four intern
- 03:20equivalent community service doctors.
- 03:22Doing a preliminary year and their
- 03:24equivalent rotations through the hospital.
- 03:27And now since you kind of have the setting
- 03:29of the hospital where it's at in South
- 03:32Africa and kind of the prevalence of
- 03:34certain diseases wanted to show some photos,
- 03:37'cause those are really the most fun part,
- 03:39and so you can see the sun setting here
- 03:42on part of the hospital into the right.
- 03:44I'm sorry I stole this photo
- 03:46from the website,
- 03:47but I thought it was like a great
- 03:50entrance photo of the hospital like the ER
- 03:52entrance and then the Mel medical wards.
- 03:54It's really strange,
- 03:55but sometimes you would see cats.
- 03:57I'm going around and so you see cats.
- 03:59I went out,
- 04:00go wander through the medical word.
- 04:02I think they're drawn to the food
- 04:04and the doors open often to help.
- 04:06I think with the breeze
- 04:07going through the unit,
- 04:08so it's such a different setting
- 04:09in the words that you're used to,
- 04:11and this was really shocking.
- 04:13And so I had to grab a photo when I saw it.
- 04:17And so going to more photos.
- 04:19So whenever you,
- 04:20if you choose to go here,
- 04:22you'll be staying and like an
- 04:24area around the facility.
- 04:25And I stayed in one of these houses
- 04:27that Brick House is on the bottom.
- 04:30It's a really pretty area and you can
- 04:32see there other like trailers were
- 04:34doctors and nurses and how staff state
- 04:36you can easily walk to the hospital
- 04:38and it's beautiful around the area
- 04:40and this is a River that was running
- 04:42by it and nice like footbridge that
- 04:44was crossing a nice place to walk.
- 04:46So it's a really unique area and
- 04:49it was refunded state and also
- 04:51a lot of unique cases.
- 04:53And then I took lots of photos of and
- 04:56traveled every weekend while I was there.
- 04:58I got to see Cape Town and then you can
- 05:01go to Durban at local city Johannesburg
- 05:04hiking in the Drakensburg Mountains.
- 05:06It's really pretty and I love
- 05:08wildlife and South Africa surprisingly
- 05:10has no shortage of wildlife,
- 05:12so that was fantastic in the hiking in
- 05:14the bottom left is pretty extraordinary too,
- 05:17so it's kind of hard to beat and so more
- 05:20hiking photos because I love hiking.
- 05:23But that's a gorgeous area.
- 05:24The Drakensburg Mountains,
- 05:26and these are easy to reach and drag to
- 05:29from that clinic that you'll be working at.
- 05:31Once again, I can't help it.
- 05:33I like animals,
- 05:34and so there's beaches,
- 05:35awesome animals,
- 05:36monkeys,
- 05:36ostriches on the beach and hippos as
- 05:38well. So pretty interesting,
- 05:40but I would be glad to answer any questions
- 05:42that people have about this rotation,
- 05:45'cause they're really unique experience
- 05:46and you get to work with fantastic
- 05:49people and have great mentors.