R E F L E C T I O N S F R O M O U R R E S I D E N T S 
I N S O U T H A F R I C A :
“Overall, my experience in South Africa was great and very valuable. Educational exchange was one of my goals and it was definitely met. I learned just as much from our colleagues in South Africa as they did from me. Furthermore, I left with a better understanding of public and global health, its needs and discrepancies, mainly in infectious disease, and I hope that as I pursue my career in international Emergency Medicine, I can help address some of these issues, even if at a local level. In South Africa particularly, HIV is a huge public health issue and burden. Until recently, the government had ignored this issue, not recognizing that the country has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. A good project through emergency medicine would be doing HIV testing and referring them to appropriate outpatient treatment centers and educating them in the ED about the disease and prevention.”
-DR. BRIJAL PATEL