Five medical professionals from the Congo
training in HIV-AIDS prevention at NIU

by Mark McGowan

NIU is hosting five medical professionals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who hope their time spent in DeKalb can lessen the devastating blow of HIV and AIDS to their countrymen.

An estimated 1.3 million people have the HIV infection while AIDS has killed 120,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control, which accounts for a prevalence rate of nearly 5 percent. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the United States is less than 1 percent.

Ngoyi K. Zacharie Bukonda, an associate professor in the School of Allied Health Professions in the NIU College of Health and Human Sciences who counts family and friends among the dead, received a grant for $100,000 from the United States Agency for International Development to support the project.

The group from the Congo – Bukonda’s country of origin – arrived Saturday to begin two weeks of training primarily to develop an infection control education program they will implement in their country to improve the attitudes, knowledge and skills of health care professionals in the area of HIV infection control.

“I am very concerned about the plight of the African population in this era of HIV and AIDS,” Bukonda said. “I’ve had the chance to visit many hospitals there. Everywhere I went, I saw HIV killing people. I can make a difference, and I know NIU can make a difference.”

“This is a very significant activity. HIV and AIDS are really at epidemic proportions, particularly in developing countries. Africa is going to lose a whole generation,” said Sherilynn Spear, chair of the School of Allied Health Professions. “Ngoyi is very dedicated to this. He speaks five languages, including English and French, and communicates and understands the African health care systems in ways that are culturally sensitive.”

The team coming to NIU includes Audry Mulumba Wa Kamba, the provincial medical officer who oversees the delivery of health care to the 5.5 million inhabitants of the Eastern Kasai province.

Also in the delegation are two faculty members from the Université de Mbuji Mayi – Ghislain Disashi Tumba, dean of the medical school there, and Alain Kabeya Mukonu Batumika, a lecturer – and Crispin Lumbala Wa Mbuyi and Augustin Kazadi Mpoyi Kataku, two medical officers who manage respectively the health zones of Dibindi and Ngandajika. These are two of the 29 health zones in the Eastern Kasai province. The country counts about 500 health zones, each of which includes about 150,000 people.

The challenge they face is monumental.

War has ravaged the country, Bukonda said, spreading HIV and AIDS as soldiers rape women while some of the widows of men killed in the fighting become sex workers to support their families. Without any other meaningful prospect, a number of war orphans also are turning to prostitution for money, he said. Those who are selling sex do not use protection if it would violate the wishes of the clients.

Poverty plays another role. The cost for a year’s supply of medicine to treat HIV and AIDS – about $600 in United States money – is twice the average annual income of most citizens. Meanwhile, Bukonda said, those who can afford treatment sometimes find none is available or perhaps fall victim to unsafe delivery of medicine and procedures of care.

Attitudes of denial and sometimes fear among their countrymen regarding HIV and AIDS also work against the reduction of the disease, he said. Many refuse to acknowledge HIV and AIDS as a critical health issue, he said. Many women are not open to talking about their sexual activity. Others refuse to accept the science behind how HIV and AIDS are transmitted, and family members of the dead rarely reveal to others what killed their relatives.

Even Bukonda, who lost his sister, his nephew and countless friends to the disease, found the cause of his sister’s death in tiny print in a letter he received informing him of her passing.

“It’s ‘business as usual,’ and that needs to change. Without the courage to face up to it, people will continue to die, to suffer. It’s not necessary for people to die,” he said. “We still have a long way to go. Basic knowledge to protect oneself is needed, and it is unfortunate that most people don’t get that knowledge.”

NIU’s pilot project will help to create a model for HIV infection training, something Bukonda hopes will impact at least 60 to 75 percent of health care professionals in the two health zones targeted by the project. The next two weeks also will help the five health care leaders to develop plans for forming, deploying and coaching quality improvement teams who will monitor the quality of care in their zones to lower the rates of infections caused by unsafe medical practices.

The African visitors will hear lectures and watch demonstrations given by Bukonda and others from the College of Health and Human Sciences and elsewhere, including Musau Wakabongo, clinical associate professor of microbiology at Des Moines University; Kishwaukee Community Hospital; Cook County Hospital; and the Joint Commission Resource, a subsidiary of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.

All are eager for knowledge, Bukonda said, as are the health care providers in the Congo who will benefit after the team’s return.

“We need people to learn, and to be exposed to updated technology. They want to learn, to be exposed. You cannot give something you don’t have yourself,” he said. “They’re very interested in what our university has to offer, and they want our support.”

Bukonda came to NIU in 1997 after three years teaching health care management at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He came to the United States in 1987 to pursue graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a master’s degree in public health and a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration and public health.

In his native Congo, where he will return for most of 2005 during a sabbatical leave from NIU to conduct more research and support the training, Bukonda served as health planner for the Rural Health Project, chief of personnel in the Ministry of Health, faculty member in the school of hospital administrators and hospital administrator.

“This is really an exciting project and certainly a worthwhile project, and hopefully the beginning of a long-standing relationship and an ongoing effort,” Spear said. “Public health is an international concern.”

11-15-04