Aboard a traveling hospital on the Amazon River, a group of Michigan State University medical students had a lesson in tropical medicine, working with patients suffering from parasitic infections, malnutrition and malaria.

The trip on the Luz Na Amazon-II medical facility boat was just part of a 10-day health education program to Brazil’s Eastern Amazon region for 21 medical students from the colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine.

Organized by Reza Nassiri, director of MSU’s Institute of International Health and an assistant dean in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, the trip was set up in partnership with Universidade Federal Do Para in the northern Brazilian city of Belem. The trip, which lasted from Dec. 31 to Jan. 10, also included job shadowing experiences in Barros Barreto Hospital and community clinics in the city of Belem.

“UFPA and the Eastern Amazon region offer tremendous opportunities for MSU faculty and students to conduct research as well as experience educational courses in health, medicine and many other disciplines,” Nassiri said. “This 10-day trip allowed our medical students to not only sharpen their clinical skills and broaden their knowledge of tropical medicine but also to develop cultural competency skills and gain an appreciation of health-care delivery in another nation.”

Students began their trip observing hospital and community clinics; they also spent time in the diagnostic labs at the UFPA Institute of Tropical Medicine and received lectures from Brazilian doctors as well as Dr. Nassiri. Those experiences led to their daylong trip aboard the Luz Na Amazon-II that was organized by UFPA and the Bible Society of Brazil, which owns the boat.

Equipped with a triage space, four examination rooms, an automated diagnostic laboratory, a pharmacy and a dental office, the boat serves as the main health-care option for inhabitants of the region, Nassiri said.

“I am interested in infectious diseases and international medicine, and this was a great introduction to what I would be doing in that field,” said Susan Jarosz, a first-year medical student in the College of Osteopathic Medicine. “Many of the patients we saw had unusual cases or end-stage cases, and we got to see many of the classic symptoms and treatments you do not see here in the U.S.”

Nassiri said in addition to the dozens of Brazilian physicians and administrators with UFPA, the trip would not have been possible without support of Cynthia Simmons, an associate professor in MSU’s Department of Geography who is helping oversee the university’s expanding role with Federal University of Para.