medicine
Waging War Against Malaria Mehal Churiwal Dr. Boyce served as part of the infantry in South mapping the grounds, though, Dr. Boyce soon realKorea and Iraq before he came to UNC Chapel Hill ized that malaria as well as the geology and ecology and began medical school. After his second year of of the region share a close relationship, co-evolving medical school, though, he left to work as the Civil in an intricate and precise manner. His research Affairs Officer in Iraq where he was at the forefront thus follows the unique methodology of “looking of infrastructure development and other recon- for variation and mutations involved with drug restruction projects, interacting with local residents sistance to malaria in a small, concentrated area... to confront problems such as millions of people los- to understand heterogeneity in a micro-environing access to water in Baghdad city or having their ment.”2 sewer systems break down Dr. Boyce has worked in amidst the violence. He soon the Western region of Uganda returned to complete medifor about seven years, gathercal school with a newly found ing enormous quantities of inspiration to pursue public data on the specific biology of health. Now, Dr. Boyce’s whole the land and incidence of macareer is dedicated to fighting laria. One of the most recent this centuries-old battle in the and interesting topics has been 1 small, rural villages of Uganda. to understand variation in antimalarial drug resistance with When he started his rerespect to altitude in the highsearch on malaria in Uganda, land region of Western Uganda, there were no maps of the vilspecifically in the Bugoye sublages, and there was no way to county of the Kasese District. identify what areas had high or This is a particularly diverse low rates of malaria. Thus, he area of land for such a small rebegan his work walking around Figure 1: Map of the Bugoye gion, with steep hillsides towards the communities alongside residents, asking them where their subcounty in Kasese District, where the west and lower-lying ground the Bugoye Health Center is located. towards the east. The area is also village began and ended, often Image courtesy of Dr. Boyce. where the Bugoye Health Center receiving answers like, “Our village ends at that mango tree in the middle of the dirt is located, which is where the samples for this parroad.”2 Through the frustration and imperfection of ticular study were collected.3
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