My Why
People often ask why I chose to work in the field of HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases, especially given the top leading causes of death in much of the world are from chronic diseases such as cancers and heart disease. However, for me it came down to four key areas: public health impact, urgency, innovation, and collaboration. Infectious diseases can have a significant impact on public health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Working in infectious diseases provides the opportunity to make a tangible difference in the lives of people who are affected by diseases like HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, Ebola, and cholera. They can also have a significant impact on global health security and pandemic preparedness as was seen with the COVID-19 pandemic. Infectious diseases often require rapid response as they can ignite and spread like wildfire during outbreaks if not mitigated. So much can be at stake with the health and well-being of populations. The sense of urgency and immediate short-term impact can be exhilarating to those who enjoy working in a fast-paced dynamic field. Infectious diseases also pose many challenges that require innovative solutions. HIV, for example, is a complex virus and developing a vaccine requires cutting-edge research and development with collective brilliant minds. Working in infectious diseases is vastly multidisciplinary in its approach, which means that professionals from a variety of fields (e.g. epidemiology, microbiology, immunology, public health, clinical medicine) can work together to tackle complex health challenges. The fact that we, as a society, oftentimes have the tools and power within our hands to direct, control, and prevent the spread of disease from one person to another is why I chose to work in infectious diseases.
Selecting a conference
As a global surveillance fellow, a lot of our focus is on research and disseminating novel findings from the work out in the field around the world. With public exposure, more awareness is brought to pressing issues that need more support and attention. Therefore, one of the best methods to get your work noticed on a global scale is by presenting at international conferences. This can consist of oral presentations, poster presentations, workshops and tutorials, plenary sessions (keynote speaker presentations), symposia (group presentations), and roundtable discussions. Two of the most coveted conferences to present at annually in the field of HIV are the International AIDS conference and the Conference for Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI). With CROI upcoming, our team and implementing partners worked to submit an abstract (brief summary of research paper) to present at the conference. I had also applied for the new investigator scholarship to cover my flight and registration fees if accepted. Luckily, a few months later we received the news that the abstract was accepted for poster presentation along with an oral panel discussion. The abstract was an analysis of HIV recent infection surveillance data among young people in Malawi.
A new endeavor
The conference took place in Seattle, Washington and lasted for four days. This was going to be my first ever conference of any type that I had participated in, so it was a really exciting opportunity. The journey from Malawi to Seattle was very long as you could imagine, especially since Seattle is situated way up in the northwest of the United States and I was crossing the Atlantic from Eastern Africa. During the flight, I happened to make conversation with the passenger sitting beside me. He explained to me that he was a nurse from Ghana and was also attending CROI. It was really interesting to hear his story and upbringing and the adversities he faced to make a living outside the big city before finally moving to Accra in 2021. I was amazed by how highly he talked about the USA and the movies and pop culture and his ambitions to one day move to New York City to start a new life for his family. We exchanged contacts, and I promised to visit him in Ghana in the near future. It also happened to be that the woman sitting right behind me was also attending the conference, and probably several others on the plane.
Not only was this my first time attending a conference, but it was also my first time visiting Seattle. All I knew was that it rains a lot there and is great for salmon and the wilderness. I also had two colleagues from Malawi join for the conference, and it was really interesting to hear the perspectives of their first time visiting the United States and how it compared to back home in Malawi. Even though I was a tourist in Seattle myself, it was very exciting being able to walk around with them and show them a taste of my home country. For one of them, he even was lucky enough to experience his first official snow fall on our final day there.
Colleagues from the UNC Research Malawi team
The CDC Malawi and I-TECH Malawi team
The conference venue
The conference was held at the Seattle Convention Center right in the heart of downtown Seattle. It was a massive building that hosted nearly 4,000 attendees for this year's conference. It had six floors with numerous rooms of all sizes and layouts equipped with modern amenities. I think there were more people this year given this was the first in-person conference since COVID-19 began and Dr. Anthony Fauci would be giving a keynote speech after having just retired. The first day consisted of several plenary talks from leaders in the field as well as a few networking sessions where I managed to connect with some people doing very innovative and novel work from all over the world. It was nice to just sometimes sit back and have a snack during the intermissions and take in the sights and sounds of accents from all over the world, together in once place, at the same time. I was set to present on the second day of the conference as well as my two other colleagues. I had done a fair amount of preparatory work on the plane as well as the night before, but still felt nervous given the magnitude of the environment and audience.
In front of the Seattle Convention Center
Pushing our limits
Prior to our presentations, we had gone for a lunch with my colleagues to try a Mexican restaurant and unfortunately spent a bit too much time there. We had to jog back quickly as we were running late for our panel group discussions. I arrived to my assigned room and unfortunately my other colleague was also presenting at the same time, but in a different room. We then began the short presentations and panel discussions. We only had five minutes to speak, so I had to be quick and concise as I sometimes tend to ramble off on tangents. It was a large audience consisting of maybe 200+ people, but as I began to speak, I could feel my nerves slowly melt away. Luckily, everything went great with the presentation, but it was the discussion afterwards that I was most worried about. You just never know the questions folks in the audience will throw at you, and it does not look good if you are not prepared to answer the question directly. One thing I learned during my several years doing Toastmasters club was to ask the person to repeat the question if you need more time to think of a thorough response but don't actually need to hear the question again. This tactic definitely worked to my advantage for one of the questions. Following the discussions, we then proceeded to the basement of the building to begin the poster presentations as attendees walked around the room and could ask questions or explanations. However, I didn't get a whole lot of people to come by and sometimes it is just a matter of where your poster is physically located in the room as some areas are conducive to more foot traffic. The opportunity to present at CROI was an absolute privilege that not many have. It was an incredible feeling to be able to share our work with so many people who are passionate about the same things that I am.
Presenting our research findings
While at the conference, the highlights were undoubtedly the chance to meet Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who is the current director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While Dr. Fauci has received a lot of criticism during the past few years in regards to COVID-19 and even from a small group of protestors outside the venue while there, you have to respect the man for his longstanding dedication to his craft and his groundbreaking contributions to medical science. He did this all while serving as a non-partisan medical adviser to seven American presidents. It was a bit unfortunate that all attendees had to be masked during the entire conference, but it was great to be able to attend in person nonetheless.
Meeting with Dr. Rochelle Walensky (US CDC Director)
Meeting with Dr. Anthony Fauci
Small group of protestors outside the venue
Small group of protestors outside the venue
Poster Walk
As a new investigator scholar, I had the opportunity to join a small group poster walk led by leaders in the field, including Dr. Monica Gandhi from the University of California at San Francisco, who I actually first discovered from a TV interview during the pandemic. There were about ten people in our group and we spent the next hour visiting specific posters she had in mind based on our interests and backgrounds. She was extremely outgoing and like no other researcher I had met before. She actually had a really cool and relaxed personality and was pretty hip to say the least. The best part was when we got to the last poster, it was none other than the director of the program I used to work for back at Northwestern University in Chicago. I had no idea he would be at the conference and to see that they were good friends and worked together on the poster was even more thrilling. I gave a big hug to him and the three of us talked and connected on a more personal level. Dr. Gandhi then mentioned that she was planning a trip to India and wanted to visit Kerala, the state where my family is originally from. I had given some recommendations to my former director when he had visited in the past and she was thrilled to hear them. She even gave me her business card and personal email afterwards and declared us now friends. Oftentimes, if you can manage to make a personal connection with someone, that goes even further than relating to them strictly on a work level.
Poster presentations on our research findings