Over the weekend, third year clinical students Jonathan Barney and Alex Soloway joined a handful of AUC students to present research at the American Academy of Family Physicians' (AAFP) Global Health Summit in Jacksonville, Florida. Their poster, “Dengue Virus: Seroprevalence in the AUC Community,” reviewed findings from a research study on Dengue virus infection among AUC students and other members of our university community.
Jonathan and Alex conducted the study during their medical sciences years in St. Maarten. The project was overseen by Dr. Kathleen Shupe, Professor and Chair of Microbiology and Immunology, and recruited more than 260 individuals. In addition to testing study participants for Dengue, Jonathan and Alex also collected data on demographic profiles and the presence of virus-related symptoms. Findings revealed that Caribbean natives were more likely to test positive for Dengue, and of all those who tested positive, only 20 percent had been formally diagnosed with the virus.
In addition to their poster presentation, Jonathan and Alex were recently accepted for publication in the next edition of the American Medical Students Research Journal.
We would like to acknowledge and congratulate the many other AUC students who had their research presented at AAFP over the weekend.