Question: What has been the proudest moment of your career?

Anouk Gouvras answered on 20 Jun 2012:

I’m not sure, when I finished my PhD and passed the final examination…well it took a week for the realisation to sink in and that is when I felt very happy with myself. But also when I went back to a village in Niger, 3 months after the people had been treated and the kids (who were afraid of me at first) were happy to see me.

I especially remember a serious-looking young boy. When we first went to treat this village he didn’t want to take the medicine because he didn’t trust doctors and scientists because his father had died in the hospital. But he had so much blood in his urine from the damage the parasite had done and he admitted that he did feel ill. The team convinced him to take the medicine and when I visited after the treatments to check for parasites he handed a pot of clear urine, no blood, and told the team that he felt a lot better, that he would continue to take the treatments we gave him, and he thanked us very seriously. I was pretty proud then, because we had earned his trust, and because he was cleared of the parasite.