Day 7- Passion fruit and Pulmonology

It has been raining intermittently the last 3 days here and the roads and sidewalks are covered with red soil. All this water has made the trees, plants and shrubbery appear greener than normal. Every morning, a flock of squawking birds (Hadada ibis) and monkeys come out to feed in the trees surrounding the guesthouse. We have freshly squeezed passion-fruit juice for breakfast along with plates of pineapple/papaya and toast with plum jam. I really could get used to this pampering.

At the hospital, I went to the post mortem conference today. The case presented was a 24 yr old male with recently diagnosed HIV and Hepatitis C who presented with altered mental status. He was admitted and started on treatment for hepatic encephalopathy only to be found dead 2 hours later. The autopsy showed aspiration as the immediate cause of death but also found disseminated tuberculosis that was not diagnosed ante-mortem. At the end of the discussion, the consultant concluded that every HIV patient in Uganda had tuberculosis unless proven otherwise.

I was planning on doing pulmonary next week - the thought of active tuberculosis lurking behind has me thinking twice :)

Passionfruit and pulmonology