Malaria POR workshop

Today was the first day of the prevention of re-establishment (POR) of malaria workshop for the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat. In the group photos, I'm in the second row standing on the far right. There were representatives from all districts within the province, many of whom have not had any experience with handling malaria cases because the province has been malaria-free. However, there are three districts that are high risk, either due to environmental factors that make them hospitable to the malaria parasite or due to certain high-risk groups who get exposed to malaria through the prolonged periods of time they spend in the forest as rubber tappers, border patrol police, soldiers, monks, or doing migrant work. Participants were divided into four groups according to their role in handling malaria cases: 1) diagnosis and treatment; 2) surveillance; 3) vector control and entomology; and 4) response, whether that involves insecticide treated net distribution, community education, household spraying of insecticide, or ensuring that an entomological survey is conducted to assess malaria risk. Afterwards, Pratin and I treated the malaria program and vector borne disease staff to dinner. We went to an excellent seafood restaurant. I didn't get a photo of the whole spread, but we had several types of fish, shellfish, prawns, and more. Even though we were all quite full, we then stopped by the roti restaurant next door, as it's the most famous one in the area. I just had crispy and soft roti that you can dip in condensed milk, but they offer a very long list of both sweet and savory options. They also make these black charcoal roti as well as green matcha roti. The roti maker starts out by flattening the dough out with his hands before he starts slapping and throwing it around on the metal counter until it is very thin. It then gets fried with lots of oil. It reminded me a bit like the technique that some pizzaiolos employ but without throwing the dough in the air.