President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
Quick Facts
Funder:
President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) initiative funded through the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Countries:
Nigeria and Tanzania
Primary Awardee:
Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
Key Partner in Nigeria:
AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN)
Key Partner in Tanzania:
Management for Development and Health (MDH)
Principal Investigator:
Dr. Phyllis Kanki, HSPH
Special Advisor:
Dr. Robert L. Murphy
Clinical Team
Northwestern University’s Center for Global Health participates on the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Nigeria and Tanzania, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) through a grant awarded to the Harvard School for Public Health. The Center’s role in the PEPFAR project involves:
- Education and training
- Supply chain management
- Clinical oversight
- Research
Education & Training
Human capacity building activities are an important aspect of all development projects. The goal is to enhance the skills of the host-country health workers, enabling them to better serve the people of their country. Faculty and staff from the Center for Global Health collaborate with the in-country clinical team to conduct approximately eight workshops per year in Nigeria, each lasting 3-5 days. The topics of these trainings are dependent on the needs of the partner institutions. Examples of past trainings include Basic and Advanced Antiretroviral Training, Basic and Advanced Pharmacy Training, HIV-TB co-infection, HIV-Hepatitis co-infection, Neurologic manifestations in patients infected with HIV, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and Pediatrics. To ensure the effectiveness of trainings, the Center administers pre- and post-tests to determine whether participants are retaining the information and whether a participant can move to the next level of training. Ultimately, the participants of such trainings return to their home institution and provide step-down training to their colleagues.
Supply Chain Management
The Center for Global Health liaises with in-country personnel to conduct supply chain management activities for all HIV drugs and capacity building in this area. There are approximately 55,000 adult and pediatric patients that currently receive antiretroviral therapy at one the host-country clinics affiliated with this PEPFAR program. Two of the Center for Global Health’s pharmacologists, Dr. Kristin Darin and Dr. Kim Scarsi, project out drug needs, coordinate the ordering of these drugs, and monitor their effective delivery. They also conduct clinical oversight to ensure that prescriptions are accurately prescribed and administered according to program clinical guidelines.
Clinical Oversight
As Clinical Consultant to the MDH HIV Care and Treatment Program in Tanzania, Dr. Claudia Hawkins provides clinical and technical oversight to program, advising specifically in the areas of ART, PMTCT/Pediatrics, TB/HIV and Quality Improvement. She facilitates regularly in National ART Trainings and Advanced level and specialty trainings.
Research
The Center for Global Health conducts retrospective analyses and operational research on antiretroviral therapies and regimen comparisons in both Nigeria and Tanzania. The databases that the Center uses arebuilt and implemented by the Harvard School of Public Health, the prime awardee of the PEPFAR project in Nigeria. The Center for Global Health analyzes this data to study health outcomes for different drugs and regimens.
See the posters that were presented at the 2010 International AIDS Conference in Vienna:
- Clinical and virologic outcomes of six first-line regimens in a large ART program in Nigeria
- TDF-3TC-NVP is Inferior to AZT-3TC-NVP in a Large ART Program in Nigeria
This page last updated Sep 7, 2011