While the challenges of global health and infectious disease are immense, the power to effect positive change often begins with a single student working across borders to make a difference.
Take Philippe-Antoine Bilodeau, MDCM'19, the inaugural recipient of the Dr. Freda M. Omaswa Travel Award for the Study of Tropical and Infectious Diseases, established to honour the legacy of an accomplished Faculty of Medicine graduate and promising researcher who passed away in 2016. The bursary (established by Omaswa’s classmates and funded through Seeds of Change) allowed Bilodeau to travel to KwaZulu-Natal in northeastern South Africa in 2017 to work with local physicians and medical students.
“From working with patients suffering from tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, malaria, malnutrition and snake bites, to going out into the communities to provide care, I had a chance to see what rural family medicine is all about,” says Bilodeau. “My key tasks included seeing patients in the emergency department and various outpatient clinics, and accompanying the mobile clinics which went out in the villages to administer medications.”
Bilodeau, who was also a J.W. McConnell Scholarship recipient, says his internship in South Africa gave him insight into the various initiatives currently in place to fight HIV and TB epidemics, and provided an opportunity to understand the impact of living conditions, income and long-term discrimination on the health of individuals and populations.
“This travel award allowed me to gain a profound understanding of health as a whole, and of the importance of global health,” he says. “I’ve also had the privilege to see what actions are being taken to help fight infectious diseases in South Africa. I believe these experiences will not only make me a better physician, but a better citizen as well.”