Pharmacy faculty, students travel to Mexico for health project

	Christine Catney, clinical assistant professor in the UI College of Pharmacy, examines a youth during a visit to Xicotepec, Mexico. Photo by Hazel Seaba.

Members of the University of Iowa community can’t fathom falling ill to something found in the water they drink—a healthy water supply is something that’s taken for granted at the University and in surrounding communities.

Two College of Pharmacy faculty members and two pharmacy students recently traveled to a place where such a risk is more commonplace—Xicotepec, Mexico.

Children in Xicotepec and other parts of Mexico are vulnerable to intestinal worm infections, often due to poor drinking water and sanitation conditions. If untreated, these infections can cause malnutrition and delayed mental growth.

Hazel Seaba, assistant dean for curriculum; Christine Catney, clinical assistant professor; and pharmacy students Jessica Eveleth and Rebecca Lamis visited numerous preschools and primary schools in Xicotepec between March 9 and 14 to provide more than 3,100 children with the deworming medication albendazole.

“Through this trip, students participate in a valuable community public health initiative and acquire skills that support their future professional practice, particularly with underserved populations,” Seaba says.

As part of the treatment, the team recorded the height and weight of each child and dispensed a full tablet, quartered tablet, or crushed tablet of albendazole mixed with yogurt, depending on each child’s ability to chew the medication.

The Rotary Club of Iowa, which sponsored the trip, has supported Xicotepec projects for six years. This is the third year that UI students and faculty have participated in the effort—2,000 children were successfully treated during the 2007 trip.

Forty-seven faculty members, students, and community members from Iowa, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina were involved in this year’s project. The team was aided by nursing students from Xicotepec and students and faculty from the Benemerita Universidad de Pueble (BUAP) pharmacy school in Puebla, Mexico.

“Not only did this experience aid the children of Xicotepec, but it also helped us to form a strong relationship with the faculty and students of BUAP,” Lamis and Eveleth wrote in a summary report. “This relationship will hopefully result in joint health care missions in Xicotepec that are not only sustainable but also unending with possibilities.”

by Stacie Carpenter