Engaging Africa: From Cape Town to Cairo

This spring in particular, HIV Center investigators have undertaken a particularly wide-ranging set of new activities with regard to Africa. With a focus stretching from Cape Town to Cairo, Center researchers have won new grants, launched new studies, convened and participated in conferences, conducted post-doctoral research, and initiated new collaborations. The following offers a broad overview of the many ways in which "engaging Africa" remains a top priority and major commitment of the HIV Center.

• HIV Center Director Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D. participated in a high-level workshop in Tunis, Tunisia from May 1-3 on the theme of "Behavioral and Social Sciences Research on HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)." Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of AIDS Research (OAR), the workshop brought together scientists from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan with a focus on multidisciplinary approaches to prevention and management of HIV/AIDS. Discussions at the workshop focused on behavioral and social science research on HIV/AIDS in this region, with the goal of identifying a research agenda and establishing collaborations between US and MENA investigators. Dr. Ehrhardt spoke in particular on effective interventions and strategies for behavior change.
   
• HIV Center Investigator Joanne Mantell, Ph.D. has launched two new studies in Africa. The larger study, funded by NIMH, addresses the overlooked issue of reproductive choice among people living with HIV, many of whom wish to have children. Mantell and her team are testing a multi-level structural intervention that simultaneously addresses stigma and poor access to contraceptive services. It also introduces best-practices counseling approaches that maximize sexual risk reduction based on clients' personal situations. With funding from the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFar), Mantell has also begun a study in Cape Town among 40 female and male clients of an STD clinic regarding anal sex practices and HIV risk. The study seeks to develop research protocols for discussing anal sex, identify attitudes towards anal sex and microbicides, estimate the prevalence and frequency of anal sex, and explore the practice and meaning of anal sex, particularly within heterosexual couples.
• The M.A.C. AIDS Fund recently awarded the HIV Center with a two-year grant to identify and help to cultivate emerging leaders in South Africa who will make a major contribution towards HIV/AIDS prevention advocacy at the local, regional, or national levels. Formally titled the "M.A.C. AIDS Fund Leadership Initiative at Columbia University and UCLA," the project will provide a structured, supportive, closely monitored and mentored program to enable participants to engage in the exchange of successful approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention that can be modified to meet local needs. Six South
   
  
  African women and men will receive training in the HIV prevention, leadership and advocacy skills, policy analysis, and strategic media communication.  At the outset of the program in early 2008, participants will be immersed in an intensive two-month HIV/AIDS prevention training, during which they will develop a plan for HIV/AIDS prevention in their area of work and interest. Once the two-month training period ends, each program participant will receive the funds needed to carry out their prevention plans with ongoing support from mentors both at the HIV Center and in South Africa. The project will be led by HIV Center Director Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D. with Thomas J. Coates, Ph.D., Director of the Program in Global Health at U.C.L.A.  Work at the HIV Center is being led by Program Director Shari Dworkin, Ph.D. and an experienced team of researchers in the U.S. and South Africa.
   
• In May, HIV Center Investigator Theo Sandfort, Ph.D. co-chaired one of the first conferences on the intersection of HIV/AIDS and same-sex behaviors in South Africa. To read more about this conference, click here.

• Isidore Udoh, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the HIV Center recently returned from a month-long research trip to Nigeria as part of the HIV Center's International Elective program. During his visit to his home country, Udoh met with social scientists, medical practitioners, civil society leaders, faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, school administrators, traditional leaders, and members of the public to learn about the state of HIV/AIDS research and programs in the Niger Delta region. Udoh spent most of the trip at the University of Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria where he interacted with faculty and students, assessed research capacity, and explored the possibilities for research collaboration with the HIV Center. He also spoke about the HIV Center's research programs with the local media, and visited institutions in other parts of Nigeria. To read a brief essay by Udoh about his return to Nigeria, click here.
   
• HIV Center Investigator Claude Ann Mellins, Ph.D. has been serving as a consultant to the Lundy Foundation (President: Victor Dukay, Ph.D.)  in Tanzania, which is faced with large numbers of children orphaned by parental deaths from AIDS, malaria, and other causes.  A psychologist specializing in children and families affected by HIV, Mellins helped to evaluate programs at the Godfrey's Children Center in the village of Idwelli.  The center provides residential, nutritional, educational, and other facilities to children who might otherwise be abandoned by families who are unable to care for them.  Assessments conducted six month after the start of the program indicated that many of the children were benefiting from this new arrangement. Work is underway to sustain the center and to potentially disseminate this supportive model for use elsewhere in Africa.
   
• The Lloyd Foundation has funded the HIV Center to sponsor an "HIV/AIDS and Gender Think Tank" (PI: Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D.)  to be held in Cairo in March 2008. Co-sponsored with the U.C.L.A. Program in Global Health (Director: Thomas J. Coates, Ph.D.), the Think Tank ill provide a venue for identifying and highlighting cutting edge work on the role of gender in the global AIDS epidemic. Laying important groundwork in advance of the 2008 International AIDS Conference in Mexico City, the Think Tank will focus on links among women's rights, status, and structural empowerment, but will also focus on changing the discourse on gender relations and masculinities. During the Think Tank meeting, key opinion leaders and researchers will work through the most promising ways to concretely link AIDS, feminism, and the women's movement while expanding notions of masculinity. The meeting will produce action items and concrete recommendations that other prevention researchers, clinicians, and policymakers can use as they plan their work in this area. At the HIV Center, the project will be led by Center Director Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D. and investigator Shari Dworkin, Ph.D.
   
• On March 22, Wafaa El-Sadr, M.D., M.P.H. presented at HIV Center Grand Rounds on "International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP): Building Global Capacity to Combat HIV." A longstanding collaborator with the HIV Center through her work at Harlem Hospital, El-Sadr is now the head of ICAP at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. This $275 million program, funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and numerous private donors including the Gates Foundation, is one of the largest providers of AIDS care and treatment, non-physician care provider training, and integrated TB/HIV treatment, working with over 196,000 HIV-positive people at 178 sites in 14 mostly Sub-Saharan African countries. The HIV Center will be collaborating with ICAP to bring our expertise in social and behavioral research on such issues as medication adherence, stigma, child and adolescent development, and women's issues to the large-scale roll-out and scale-up of antiretroviral treatment programs.

Click here to learn more about the HIV Center's international agenda, including the history of our involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa.