Tag: Janis Weeks

Scaling Up: Expanding Community Health Worker Programs for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in the Bururi Province, Burundi, East Africa

Presenter: Alex Goodell, Biology

Poster: B-2

Mentor: Janis Weeks, Biology

Burundi, a small and often-forgotten country in East Africa, lies directly south of Rwanda. Though poorly covered in the media, Burundi suffered a similar conflict as its northern border, with ethnic-driven violence plaguing the nation for 13 years. When the conflict officially ended in 2006, Burundi was ranked as the poorest country in the world. Its health statistics are equally low. According to the WHO, one in five children die before their fifth birthday, half of those driven by malaria. Only 200 doctors serve the population of 8 million and most of the poor have no access to healthcare. In some areas, days of walking are required to reach the closest physician. Additionally, hundreds of thousands became refugees or internally displaced persons during the conflict and have little access to resources. In this setting, the use of “Community Health Workers” (CHWs) is appropriate. Village Health Works, a small clinic in the rural Bururi province, has implemented a small CHW program similar to Partners in Health. Over a six-month period in 2009 and 2010, data was collected on 10000 patients regarding their medical status, location, and demographic information at VHW. Additionally, GPS data was collected on the location of the CHWs. This presentation looks at the history of CHW programs worldwide and analyzes the health metrics of the area surrounding VHW. It then makes a series of suggestions on how VHW could better serve its patients with CHWs, specifically focusing on refugees and internally displaced persons.

The Neurocognitive Development of HIV Positive Children and Adolescents

Presenter: Sophia Tarzaban

Mentor: Janis Weeks

Oral Presentation

Major: Human Physiology 

Research has displayed that children living with HIV diagnoses have showed signs of progressive encephalopathy; and these children exhibited higher rates of residual neurologic, cognitive, and scholastic impairment compared
with the average school age child. My research highlights the fact that antiretroviral drug treatments (ARVs) are developmentally unsafe to be administered to infants, children, and adolescents, due to the decreased neurocognitive development that is displayed as they progress into adulthood. In addition, my research exposes the physiological mechanism that causes HIV to damage the developing brain of infants. My goal is to draw awareness to this issue by arguing that these children require special attention and are too often overlooked, in order to help prevent them from losing their right to an education.The data I collected is from a review of over 30 research papers and will be presented as a meta-analysis of relevant cognition testing performed on children born with HIV. These cognitive assessments provide statistical comparisons that are used to compare and contrast scholastic performance in various disciplines.

My research is important as it displays strong evidence that ARVs are not a safe treatment method for combating HIV in youth and adolescents. While ARVs are the current, most effective treatment in increasing child mortality, they are also increasing the rates of encephalopathy amongst school children. Discovering a new, safer method of treatment for HIV+ children could produce a generation of adolescents and adults who are not only immunologically stable, but also cognitively sound.

Anthelmintic Drug Sensitivity in Male and Female Panagrellus redivivus Nematodes

Presenter: Wanjiru Karanja-Senge

Faculty Mentor: Janis Weeks

Presentation Type: Oral

Primary Research Area: Science

Major: Biology

Caenorhabditis elegans is a well-studied model species of nematode worm that has been widely used for anthelmintic (anti-nematode) drug development as drug resistance has increased. The nematode P. redivivus presents itself as an alternative nematode to C. elegans that is easy to rear, making it useful for research in Africa. In collaboration with the Gabon-Oregon Center, our laboratory aims to develop a P. redivivus screening system for natural products. EPG recordings are similar to electrocardiograms of the human heart. In nematodes, EPG recordings show the electrical signals produced by rhythmic contractions of the pharynx. Pharyngeal contractions are used as a readout for electrical activity of neurons and muscles in nematodes. C. elegans is a hermaphroditic species, but P. redivivus is a gonochoristic species with males and females. My study tested the hypothesis that adult male and female P. redivivus have different sensitivity to anthelmintic drugs. I used EPG recordings to test this hypothesis, while applying Ivermectin, an anthelmintic drug. DMSO was the Ivermectin solvent, and was used as a control. EPG recordings from male and female P. redivivus were analyzed using IGOR Pro software. My results suggest that there is no sex difference in the sensitivity of P. redivivus to Ivermectin, supporting the idea that mixed cultures containing both sexes can be used for drug screening experiments.