Chasing patients, actually. Shari and I went out with the clinic staff today to collect follow-up samples from Lassa fever patients and their household members. We discover that, like most things in Nigeria, that is much more complicated then it sounds! People just choose their own house numbers, so they often aren't even remotely consecutive. On one road, we found two different No. 10 houses. At another place, we found not the patient, but her daughter, who helpfully hopped in our car and directed us to her mother's house. At the next house, we discovered the patient actually lived out of town, and just stayed with his brother while he was sick.
Getting to each new place took a while, since the roads are unpaved and very bumpy, and there are no maps. We had to rely on asking passerbys for help, which usually led to lots of very animated discussions and more and more people coming over to offer assistance. And have I mentioned it is really HOT here?
At the end of the day, though, our very diligent collaborators here had managed to find two patients and sample them and their families. A very successful day here in Nigeria, given all of the roadblocks, both literal and figurative!
We're heading back to Ibadan tomorrow, having finished everything we wanted to do in Irrua - thanks to Eric's and Christian's planning, and everyone's hard work.
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