This is the final blog post, one month since the last one. In the beginning of our stay we had plenty of time to write and update, but the further we got in the project the more complicated it got. Following below is a wrap up from the last month of the stay in Kenya!
Coming back from Maasai Mara we had a few days to enjoy ourselves. Relaxing by the pool at ILRI, going out on night club with the couple we live with, making tacos for them, eating awesome fish stew made by them etc. Carro gets a valentines rose and we get primary results in the lab.
After getting primary results in Nairobi we head back out to the field for collection of more data. I prepare milk, blood and serum samples for testing of brucellosis. The cards are called FTAs, and any sample put on them will be inactivated for safe transport. The small test tubes are called Milk Ring Tests (MRT), and is used to screen milk for Brucella. Carro collects goat blood for serum checks against her newly performed vaccinations against Rift Valley Fever and PPR.
I travel out to milk distributing households, milk vendors and farmers to track down Brucella infecting locals. After checking a farm the kids selling the milk asked if they could tag along. Only like 12 people squeezing into the trunk of the truck.
Small video of the struggle of sampling cattle.
After finding a lot of Brucella in the local milk we take the opportunity to inform farmers about the situation during a local gathering for Carolina's vaccination program.
Unfortunately two test tubes with Brucella-positive blood samples exploded in the centrifuge. Nothing else to do than to start cleaning and taking post-exposure prophylaxis.
Before going back to Nairobi after two weeks in the field we visited the nearby Meru national park. Amazingly lucky to spot over a hundred elephants and 8 rhinos!
On our way back to Nairobi we realized that Kenya had gotten their first case of the Corona virus COVID19. The government informed that they will close all the borders for outgoing and incoming flights. We contacted the Embassy which recommended us to rebook our flight to as early as possible. We manage to get a flight only two days after coming back to Nairobi, and squeezed a weeks worth of laboratory analysis into two hectic and sleepless days. The picture below is from our last night in Nairobi with the Kenyan couple which we lived. So glad and appreciative for everything we got to experience. All the adventures, all the food, all the amazing people. This will not be the last time we travel to Kenya.
Waiting for boarding in Kenya following security checks. Tomorrow they will completely shut down the flights in and out of Qatar where we have our transit, so we just barely managed to leave before the lock down.
