Parasite Research Project

Three years ago I went to the Amazon Rainforest with a medical aid team, providing immediate relief for physical needs of the people, but saw a much larger problem: short term solutions aren’t sustainable fixes for largely long term problems.  Anti-parasitic medications are given out to children with bellies swollen full of worms, but I knew in a few short months of drinking river water after the medication ran out, the parasite infestation would be back.

What really needs to happen is sustainable healthcare development that liberates the Amazonian people from dependence on outside support and breaks the cycles of disease.  In this case, instead of giving anti-parasitics as a short term solution, it is essential to teach the concept of germs, contagion transmission, and the importance of boiling or filtering water.

Because of this burden on my heart, the next year I co-led a trip with a nursing friend of mine focusing on teaching.  We created a curriculum that incorporated easy to understand material, props, microscopes, and hands on examples.  Doing it this way made it more fun for children and also not too complex for adults, most of which don’t even have an elementary school education.  We did teach a couple complex things such as how to make soap using palm branches and animal fat, and disease transmission. 

For those of you that are interested in making soap, I will briefly describe the steps.  This type of soap is essentially lye soap, or sodium hydroxide laced soap.  Sodium hydroxide is a strong chemical base which is why washing the hands with it kills bacteria (all bacteria, even the good).  By burning palm branches (the most accessible source of ashes in the area) and running water through the ashes, a lye solution is made.  When the lye solution is mixed with melted and filtered animal fat, it creates a soap.  Depending on the type of fat uses, the soap is either liquid or harder.  Chicken fat produces a liquid soap, pork and cow fat create a harder soap.  The process is a little more complex than described, but it is a very easy and accessible source of soap for better hygiene. 

This was difficult because their baseline understanding was very minimal, but we are hopeful that we made a long-term difference.  Changing one’s perceptions and beliefs are difficult and take a long time to implement.  It is going to require more than a single teaching session.  It is going to require a long term educational process that should originate on a governmental level.

I have been interested in parasites because of the children that I kept seeing coming into the clinics, unable to live normally because of the parasite side effects.  All I want is for those children to be happy and healthy.  Nothing pains me more than seeing them hurt, sick, or dealing with something that they shouldn’t have to.  Of course increasing sanitation and hygiene that is usually associated with industrialization directly affects that, but in a rural area of a developing nation, survival is really the only thing on their minds.

I am returning to Peru with a medical volunteer team this summer and decided that would be an ideal time to incorporate a parasite research project.  Because I have seen parasites as an issue, I wanted to investigate further by determining the extent of the problem numerically and statistically.  In order to do this I am taking a two pronged approach.  The fist approach involves a medication inventory of anti-parasitic medications prior to the trip and afterward, in order to determine how much was given out to the patients.  The second approach is to utilize a demographic, medical history, treatment and risk factor assessment survey during the triage station of the clinics.  This will allow me to get a better understanding of the depth of the issue, as well as allow for the possible future development of more focused, sustainable interventions.

In the future I would love to incorporate medical aid with medical teaching in order to improve sanitation and personal hygiene habits.  Hopefully, the results that I obtain from this year’s research project will encourage more focused intervention techniques.