Diary Prequel Package — page 23

'rip to Uganda zton, DC 7:00 PM LS OK, that's my venting for the day. I try to report the truth. I strive for balance. It's getting harder because everybody is fudging the truth now. Everybody is letting their agendas guide policy ---NOT the science. For the most part, as far as I can tell, the science has never really been done. Please, prove to me that I've merely missed it. Laurie April 15 - 20 - Trip to Uganda TRIP TO UGANDA April 15 - 20, 2001 April 15 - Leave Washington, DC April 16 - Arrive Entebbe/Kampala at 7:00 PM April 17 - Spent the day touring medical facilities and making patient rounds at various hospitals and facilities in Kampala. Jack Killen (Director, Division of AIDS, NIAID) was my traveling partner. Started the day off by meeting with Nelson K. Sewankambo (Dean, University of Makerere School of Medicine. Went off to the Mulago Hospital Antenatal Clinic escorted by Professor F. Mmiro, a charming and enthusiastic 50-ish OB-GYN doc and Laura Guay, a pediatrician. This was a most extraordinary experience. I witnessed and interacted with large numbers of Ugandan women who come to the clinic for antenatal care. If they request, they are screened for HIV infection and counseled. Most of them, although they come to the antenatal clinic, deliver at home unless there are complications such as twinning or toxemia. The percentage of HIV-positivity among them used to be >40 percent. Now it is approximately 20 percent. The physical nature of the clinic was that of open rooms connected to outside virandas. The clinic was packed. Many women looked healthy, but several clearly had HIV disease. Since no treatment is available, no one from among the clinic patients gets treated for HIV. If they can pay something, they get treatment for OIs and many get prophylactic Bactrim. Patients who can pay fully will get reasonable care. I had to hold back my tears. Next we went on to the Makerere University (MU)-Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Project that is heavily funded by NIAID. We were shown around by Laura Guay and Phillip Musoke Mudido, a Ugandan physician. Laura is extraordinary. She is an American woman who has been in Uganda for 13 years. She is single and has adopted (or at least supports) a few Ugandan children who are AIDS orphans. They showed me around their clinical research projects. Next went to the U.S. Embassy to meet with Ambassador Martin Brennan, a 40ish man who appeared extremely interested and knowledgeable about HIV in Uganda. I