{"id":3302,"date":"2020-02-25T10:33:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/?p=3302"},"modified":"2020-02-25T10:49:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T16:49:50","slug":"freedom-is-in-the-air-my-visit-to-sudan-a-born-again-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/2020\/02\/25\/freedom-is-in-the-air-my-visit-to-sudan-a-born-again-country\/","title":{"rendered":"Freedom is in the Air: My Visit to Sudan, a Born-again Country"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here at UNMC ID, we are thrilled to share the global, and personal efforts, of our faculty. Please take a moment to read this excellent piece by Dr. Nada Fadul<\/em>; Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UNMC<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sudan felt different this\ntime. It was the middle of December 2019, the first anniversary of the Sudanese\nRevolution that caught the world\u2019s attention. The country is going through a\nsevere economic crisis; bread and gas lines are everywhere, yet the atmosphere\nis full of hope and enthusiasm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our visit was organized by\nthe Association of Sudanese American Professors in America (www.asapa.online<\/a>). As part of the visit, we toured several universities to conduct\ninformational sessions and needs assessments.  We were met with great\nenthusiasm about the possibility of collaboration with US high education\ninstitutions due to sanctions listing Sudan as a State Sponsor of Terrorism\n(SST) for over 24 years.  Being on the SST list prevented Sudan from\naccessing new technology and knowledge exchange with the US. The needs  in the institutions we visited are enormous\nand the faculty are doing their best with very limited resources. Our agenda at\nthe University of Shendi included a meeting with the Dean of Medicine, the\nPreisdent of the University, and other faculty, followed by a ceremony\ncelebrating the anniversary of the revolution. I gave a presentation on\n\u201cUpdates in Infectious Diseases\u201d and we had an interesting discussion on the\nchallenges around handwashing, a basic infection control method in the hospital\nwhere there is only one sink in the whole floor. The next day we were taken on\na tour of the Bajrawia pyramids in the Kingdom of Meroe,  one of the ancient\nNubian kingdoms, by a graduate of the University of Shendi School of\nArcheology.The highlight of my trip was our visit to the HIV clinic and the\nNational Tropical Diseases Hospital. On the way there, we passed by the Army\nHeadquarters and I was mesmerized by the revolutionary murals.  We arrived at the Tropical Diseases Hospital\nshortly after noon. The medical director was gracious enough to take time from\nher busy day to give us a tour of the hospital, their small lab with little\nmicrobiology capabilities, and the outpatient clinic. We then proceeded to the\nOmdurman VCT and ART Center,the largest HIV clinic in the country providing\ncare to over 4,000 patients. The center was a renovated building sponsored by\nthe United Nations Development Program. Sudan is not a recipient of President\nEmergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which puts it at a disadvantage when\nattempting to control the epidemic. The Global Fund provides the antiretroviral\nmedications to the clinic\u2019s pharmacy which then distribute them to patients.\nThe regimens were mostly outdated and limited in options. The HIV clinic lab\ndid not have capabilities for viral load nor CD4 count, making clinical\nassessment the only way to assess response to antiretrovirals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In spite of the difficult\nworking environment, the HIV clinic staff is dedicated to making a difference\nin these patients\u2019 lives. The center is well equipped with highly skilled\ncounselors who conduct  needs assessments of patients\u2019 medical,\npsychosocial, and mental health. All of their assessments are done and stored\nin paper files as the center does not access to an electronic medical record.\nThere is a dedicated pediatrics clinic space and waiting room as well as a\ndedicated pediatrics counselor. Several needs were identified including staff\ntraining and capacity building, assistance with equipment, and assistance with\naccess to US agencies funding programs for comprehensive HIV care and\nprevention. Stigma was identified as a major challenge to retaining patients in\nHIV care as well as concerns about confidentiality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We concluded our trip with\na 1-day conference \u201cTowards Sustainable Development in Sudan: Challenges and\nOpportunities\u201d attended by the Ministers of Health, Economics, and Irrigation.\nThe Minister of Health delivered a presentation on his transitional period\nhealth strategy, including an outbreak response and improving access to\npreventive services. He emphasized the need to address health disparities in\nthe country, especially war-torn regions in Darfur and Nuba Mountains among\nother regions. I followed with a presentation on \u201cHow Research can Inform\nHealthcare Policy\u201d and emphasized the role of implementation and dissemination\nscience as well as health outcomes research in the next phase of health\ntransformation. The conference provided a great opportunity for networking with\nfaculty from different universities and staff from the Minister of\nHealth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, our visit was\nsuccessful and we were very inspired to see a new Sudan that is full of hope\nfor a bright future. The economy is in bad shape and the healthcare system is\nin dire need of help, but I am confident that the dedicated Sudanese inside and\noutside of Sudan will be able to rebuild the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\nLYSqbZC PBQKbQZxH jtKYOVX <\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at UNMC ID, we are thrilled to share the global, and personal efforts, of our faculty. Please take a moment to read this excellent piece by Dr. Nada Fadul; Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, UNMC Sudan felt different this time. It was the middle of December 2019, the first anniversary of the Sudanese […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":532,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,64,57],"tags":[17,3],"class_list":["post-3302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff","category-hiv-aids","category-unmc-scc","tag-unmchiv","tag-unmcid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/532"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3302"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3310,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3302\/revisions\/3310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.unmc.edu\/infectious-disease\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}