Information Session for Yale/Stanford Global Health Scholars Program 2020 - South Africa

Transcript

• 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.