I haven’t written for a while, in no small part because other that work and training for the half-marathon not too much has happened. I finally got the results to our Secret Shopper Survey, and they were really good. In the fall 45% of drug shopkeepers would not sell partial doses to patients, now 90% of drug shopkeepers will not sell partial doses. (This is important for preventing antibiotic and anti-malarial resistance). More drug shopkeepers are referring people to the hospital or advising customers to go to the hospital if symptoms worsen and the percentage of secret shoppers who felt confident in the treatment they received increased as well.

Since then, I’ve been continuing to work on a new Drug Shopkeeper curriculum to continue to work on the weaker areas of “history-taking” and recognizing danger signs. I’ve also been working on a study protocol for some research about Rh incompatibility and finishing up some details about MAISHA training.

We found out last week that the President of Tanzania will be coming up to Karatu for our marathon and the opening of the Healthy Mother Healthy Baby Center. It will be an exciting and busy time for us and should bring a lot of positive attention to MIHV and malaria awareness in general.