UGANDA HIV/TB COHRE TRAiNING PROGRAM

Joint Clinical Research Center, Kampala

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

"Despite notable achievements in preventing Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and treating AIDS over the past 10 years, Uganda still faces formidable challenges to control HIV in the country. The HIV infection is fueling Tuberculosis leading to HIV/TB dual epidemic. Tuberculosis (TB) remains the leading cause of mortality among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda. The interaction of TB and HIV increases the burden of both diseases, which highlights the need for joint interventions to prevent, manage and care for HIV/TB co-infection. This creates a major challenge for human, financial and infrastructural resources to reduce the burden of HIV/TB infections in Uganda. Likewise, there is need to optimize the available manpower and other resources through identifying priority areas for human capacity development, research and infrastructural improvement that are crucial for prevention and management of HIV and TB infections. Major challenges are manifested by the limited capacity to carry out clinical, biomedical, operations and health services research projects that are essential in addressing the HIV/TB epidemic. In addition, there is lack of scientific leadership to promote HIV/TB management, to harness the efforts of the individual different players in the area of HIV and TB care so that they work jointly, and to develop the research, clinical and prevention programme agenda. There is imperfect dissemination of research findings on HIV/TB infections, inadequate utilization of research findings for policy development and delayed incorporation of evidence-based practices on HIV/TB management into routine practice. [unreadable] [unreadable] One key step in the rebuilding of the Ugandan public health infrastructure to tackle the HIV/TB epidemic is to forge strong collaborations between research institutions, Non-Government organizations, government ministries and the private sector. The JCRC is a research and health care facility devoted to caring for HIV patients and has led the way in opening Africa to antiretroviral therapy. Through the years, the JCRC has formed strong collaborations with Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) USA, the National Tuberculosis and Leprosy Programme (NTLP), Makerere and Mbarara Universities. The goal of the proposed training program is to strengthen the national capacity to address the clinical, public health and scientific challenges of the evolving HIV and TB epidemics in Uganda through training in clinical, operational and health services research. The training program will build on ongoing projects on HIV and TB, and will extend the findings of these studies to the public health and policy arena. The goals will be met through a coherent program of degree and non-degree training in collaboration with CWRU. [unreadable] "[unreadable]