News
Doctors at University of Texas Diagnose Patient in Africa
By University of Texas Medical Branch Newsroom
Feb 2, 2007, 14:02

As a half-dozen University of Texas Medical Branch specialists gathered in UTMB’s telemedicine studio last week, a movie screen before them filled with the larger-than-life image of a bearded, prostrate 50-year-old herdsman in the Masalani Hospital of northeastern Kenya, who was battling for his life.

The patient had arrived at the regional hospital three days earlier after experiencing nearly four days of intense fever, severe throbbing headaches, joint pain, nausea, vomiting after eating and weakness so profound he could no longer walk.

Dr. Summerpal Kahlon, a UTMB postdoctoral fellow and resident, arrived in Kenya last week with the telemedicine equipment that facilitated this real-time consultation, and noted that the patient had reported being bitten by mosquitoes before coming down with his symptoms. The patient tested negative for malaria, a common disease in that area.

Kahlon’s initial diagnosis was Rift Valley fever, an emerging mosquito-borne infection that has been sweeping through northeastern Kenya and the country’s coastal areas since torrential rains raked the region last November, killing nearly 30 individuals and displacing more than 20,000 people — all the while providing a watery habitat for the mosquitoes that spread RVF.

Kahlon’s infectious-disease mentor, Dr. C.J. Peters, a world-renowned expert in RVF and other infectious and tropical diseases, concurred in the diagnosis. 

Two days later, the diagnosis of RVF by Kahlon and Peters was confirmed by laboratory tests performed by researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based in Garissa, Kenya. Subsequent reports from Kahlon to scientists in Galveston indicated that the patient continues to improve and that admissions of suspected cases of RVF to the hospital have decreased.

Peters said that telemedicine offers great promise of expanding UTMB’s reach and ability to extend aid to those in need. “We were able to talk with the local physician and be sure that they had instituted the proper public health measures,” Peters said. “He also had some questions for us on what he should be doing to protect his hospital staff — and we were able to advise him on this issue as well.”

Dr. Glenn Hammack, who heads UTMB’s Electronic Health Network, said that although Kahlon was using generator power and had to climb the roof of the hospital himself to adjust the satellite for a better feed, the technology worked well. “We were able to see the patient, examine him and listen to his heartbeat through the digital stethoscope,” Hammack said. “We also received good feedback from the infectious disease specialists at UTMB on how we can improve systems for these types of projects.”

Hammack said he couldn’t recall another instance of this type of telemedicine connection being done. “It will certainly not be the last,” he said. “The possibilities are endless.” The UTMB Electronic Health Network annually conducts more than 60,000 face-to-face physician-to-patient telemedicine visits from Galveston to locations throughout the world.