|
 It is with deep sorrow that we have learnt about the death of Prisca Akinyi Odhiambo which occurred today at Lowell General Hospital in Massachusetts on Thursday 5 March 2009, after a short illness.
Prisca joined the KEMRI/CDC HIV Research Branch in early 2003 to work on the Kisumu Breastfeeding Study (KiBS). Through most of the five-plus years of the study she worked in the pharmacy as a pharmacy technician.
She was committed to the study and very dedicated to the KiBS participants, frequently advocating on their behalf at staff meetings; she was always ready to lend them a helping hand. She worked hard and often stayed in the pharmacy long hours and during weekends.
She was instrumental in gathering data for the breastmilk sub-study which resulted in a recent publication: ‘Antiretroviral concentrations in Breastfeeding Infants of Mothers Receiving Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy’ on which she is a co-author.
She was the primary author for a poster that she presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston, 2008: Discontinuation and/or Modification of Study Drug Regimen among Women in a Trial of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) for Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) in Kisumu, Kenya.
She was always eager to learn more. Unfortunately being in Kisumu, working full-time for KiBS, and taking care of two children meant it was difficult for her to pursue any further education. She left the study in November 2008 to pursue opportunities for further training in the United States.
Prisca was vibrant, full of charm, energy and humor and had a way of coping with every one from the senior (‘anayo’ as she called them) to the most junior (‘sina nayo’). She could always make us laugh. Because of her humor we used to call her "Makambo" or Nyar Okumu.
She was a special young woman and a friend to many. She will be missed by all of us in the HIV Research branch and the KEMRI/CDC community and many friends and family in Kisumu, in Kenya and the USA.
Funds are being raised for expenses in the US and Kenya and to send her back to Kenya. An account has been established in Anchorage, Alaska, another will be established in Kisumu.
|
To wire funds:
Bank name: Wells Fargo Bank
Account number: 3955433770
Account name/beneficiary: Timothy Thomas
Reference: Donations for Prisca Odhiambo
Bank routing number: 121000248
|
Checks should be made out to:
Timothy Thomas (reference account number and purpose)
Address for checks:
Wells Fargo Bank, P.O. Box 196127, Anchorage, Alaska 99519
|
For tracking purposes please inform Timothy Thomas (tft5@cdc.gov) of donations
|
