After 5 weeks in the the western highlands, I am back in Addis Ababa for a week of reports and meetings. We will be heading back out to the field on the weekend for our final four weeks of surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis (polio eradication), measles and neonatal tetanus. We are also working with local health districts and their staff to improve their awareness of the diseases under surveillance, vaccination practices and vaccine safety issues.
As to the pictures, in the top one, the woreda head and focal persons were holding a meeting with the health extension worker and kabele leaders on the side of the road in order to locate a potential AFP case. As they talked, everyone who was in the vicinity joined in on the meeting. We didn't find the case that day but they were able to locate the child later that week. In the second picture, Mohammed, the zone Surveillance Officer is showing me the way to the health post...across several logs. A crowd of small boys gathered to watch me negotiate the logs and thankfully, I got across without incident. In the third picture, the local community had gathered for routine immunizations and it turned into quite a social occasion.
As mentioned in the earlier post, the WHO office has a wireless connection which provides access to the blog. I will post more later this week.
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