Setting the Agenda for International AIDS Research The first AIDS patient was reported to the National Institutes of Health in June 1981; by August, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 108 cases in the United States. Five years later that number multiplied 250 times, and the mortality rate was as high as 55 percent.1 Before many Americans knew enough to be concerned, the medical and research communities understood they had an epidemic on their hands.
In 1986, Judith Levy was an assistant professor in UIC’s School of Public Health, working on a team to conduct a random-dial telephone survey of Chicago-area residents to establish a baseline defining what, if anything, people knew about HIV. When so much attention was on the spread of AIDS among gay men and intravenous drug users, Levy, who has a doctorate in medical sociology, provided Chicago’s Department of Public Health with the information it needed to launch an educational campaign for everyone regardless of demographics.
Levy is still at the forefront of AIDS research and prevention efforts as the director of UIC’s AIDS International Training & Research Program, a collaboration between UIC’s School of Public Health, College of Nursing and several international partners, including ministries of health, AIDS commissions and universities in four countries.
The AITRP is a research training program helping economically disadvantaged countries build their AIDS research, prevention and treatment capacities. Sponsored by the Fogarty International Center at NIH, a competitive grant-application process funds programs at 25 American universities. “The public health importance of the AITRP lies in its contributions to creating the next generation of AIDS researchers in countries where few exist,” Levy said. “In some cases, we’re training the first Ph.D.s ever in these areas.”
Under Levy’s direction, the AITRP is engaged in research-training and prevention efforts in Chile, China, Indonesia and Malawi—countries representing different stages and characteristics of the AIDS epidemic. Chile’s epidemic is in the nascent stage. The epidemic in China is among the fastest growing in the world, with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS projecting that the number of people living with AIDS could reach 10 million by 2010. Indonesia has seen a rapid increase in drug abuse in the last decade. Malawi is home to 1 million infected individuals, more than the total number in Europe and North America combined.
Levy and co-director Beverly McElmurry from UIC’s College of Nursing designed the AITRP to offer short-, medium- and long-term AIDS research training in the United States and internationally.
International scholars from participating countries can study at UIC for up to six months as an introduction to cutting-edge research in the United States, or U.S. minority scholars can conduct research in one of the participating countries as a preface to AIDS international research.
A shorter program offers one to two weeks of intensive AIDS research training in the United States or three- to 14-day workshops in collaborating countries, each reaching an average of 100 health providers, government agency staff, university faculty and research investigators on topics tailored to the needs of the particular audience.
At the deepest level, the AITRP offers master’s and doctoral degrees through UIC’s School of Public Health and College of Nursing. For their dissertations, doctoral students conduct research in their home countries and upon graduation return home to work as university faculty or government researchers and policy-makers—positions that can influence the thinking and behaviors of their countries’ leaders.
One student is home in Bali studying HIV transmission by fishermen, an issue of specific interest to him because he once worked as a fisherman there. He knows firsthand the fishermen’s way of life—returning from strenuous weeks or months at sea, they sell their catch and seek out the company of women, often sex workers. He has awareness of Indonesian culture that even the most respected American researcher or medical professional might never develop.
That’s the point Levy emphasizes repeatedly: These countries need their own experts, raised in their own cultures, in order to fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic on all fronts. “These scientists understand their country and culture in a way that we as U.S. investigators cannot,” she said. The success of U.S. investigators working on AIDS research internationally hinges on “insights into AIDS and prevention that we couldn’t [develop] if we did not have a global partner.”
Through one of her pilot studies in Malawi, Levy’s team is learning to accomplish goals despite an unimaginable absence of resources.
“We’re looking at peer support in villages to help women caregivers of people living with AIDS,” she said. “From a nursing standpoint, we know that AIDS caregivers should wear gloves when handling contaminated bed linens or dressing wounds, but these women have no gloves. We recommend washing your hands frequently to avoid contracting infections, but they don’t have soap. We know we should eat certain foods to maintain our health, but Malawi is entering another famine.”
Levy’s commitment and expertise have been noticed. Two years ago, Tommy Thompson, then secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, appointed Levy to the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council. In this prestigious role, she continues to advise the director of NIH on the AIDS research agenda.
“If we care about public health, we have to care about global public health because the boundaries between countries are artificial, and disease knows no borders,” said Levy.
For more information on the Fogarty AIDS International Training & Research Program, visit www.uic.edu/sph/AITRP.
1 Source: National Institutes of Health Web site
^ Top of Page ^
|
