Jolien's pics

The internet seems to be working rather well this evening!! So, while I go to someone's house for a meeting, I'll leave it to load up photos!!

A Dutch scientist, named Jolien (pronounced Yo-leen), has come for a month to perform a short study. Over the past few weeks, she has taken some very good pictures. Here are a few. This is the hospital bus returning from a day at clinic. I'm looking out of the window!

Rebekah (center) and her younger sister Elisa came to my house to finish Rebekah's cake for her 13th birthday. She had broken her arm the day before I came back from my trip.

Here are some of the people working in the lab, plus a couple of visitors who wanted training in PCR (the two guys on the far left and the far right). The two girls in the back are graduate students (Prativa and Binita) doing their masters project in the lab. The girl in front (Saraswoti - not the same one who works in my home) is a research assistant in the lab and the man with the mustache is Kapil, who has worked at the hospital since 1979 and with every head of the research lab (est. 1983) that has ever been at Anandaban.

Silwar works in the clinical lab. Here, Silwar is performing some standard tests on patient samples. Although primarily a leprosy hospital, Anandaban also provides general hospital services to the surrounding area.

Kapil collecting patient samples in the hospital. (They are laughing!)

Sometimes, we also have to go to other clinics, like this TB clinic, in order to collect patient samples.

Here, Kapil is freezing patient cell samples in liquid nitrogen so that we can run tests on them later as a group.

Here are Aychut and Dhurba performing a mouse footpad harvest in the clinical lab. This test allows us to check if a patient has a drug resistant form of leprosy; however, it takes 6m-1yr to properly complete. Research has identified a faster method, but it is currently far too expensive and technical to practically use in the field. So, we have to use mice...

Here are four of the men who also work in the lab or take care of the mice. They do an excellent job.

Jolien took this picture while looking into the bus before we went to Kathmandu to perform a clinic. The pile is medical records and supplies needed to serve the patients. That's me sitting next to the pile!

During clinic, two new graduate students from a local university came to discuss possible projects for next year.

WARNING: somewhat graphic wound photo is next! Don't worry, I will probably never post the really bad ones.

Leprosy patients can lose the ability to feel in affected areas, often the hands and feet. It is common for patients to come in with wounds from rats that come during the night. Sometimes these patients live alone. The patient does not feel it and is unaware until they notice the wound afterwards. This man's toes and heel had been knawed on by a rat(s). Dr. Paul Brand used to recommend giving these patients a kitten. What is sad, is that this patient may have been cured years ago; however, the nerve damage from the disease can cause permanent or ongoing problems.

During clinic, patients come from all over Nepal. This man was particularly hard of hearing but our dr's tried to find some way to communicate. He just smiled and said he still could not hear them!

During a national holiday (everyone was off from work), Jolien also visited a leprosy colony on the other side of the valley. I have not been there yet. Here are a couple of the people who live there. Saraswoti and Jolien (who took all of these pics). Jolien will leave next Thursday to return to Holland.