By Dr. Christopher Loffredo
It started with a buzz. Then a bite. Then a fever that hit harder than a bad grant rejection.
I had traveled to Mozambique for a liver disease study, confident I’d taken every precaution. But the mosquito that bit me hadn’t read the CDC guidelines.
As I lay sweating through sheets in a small clinic outside Maputo, it hit me: global health isn’t about numbers—it’s about access, infrastructure, and trust.
The doctor who treated me did so with empathy and skill. But what he didn’t have was refrigeration for certain meds, consistent power, or even mosquito nets for all patients. I recovered. Many don’t. That’s the inconvenient truth of global health work—what we study from afar, others live every day. This mosquito didn’t just remind me to reapply DEET; it reminded me why this work matters.