Tuberculosis is the most common serious opportunistic
infection in individuals living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. In South Africa’s Free State Province, more
than 70 percent of all patients with active TB also have HIV. Despite high rates of co-morbidity, however, only 65 percent of tuberculosis patients are tested for HIV.
With the goal of building the institutional capacity needed to translate HIV and TB research into scientific data that can effectively inform related health policies and practices, AIHA established a partnership between the University of the Free State’s Centre
for Health Systems Research and Development (CHSRD) and the State University of New York (SUNY)
Downstate Medical Center in 2007.
Together, partners worked to study the evolving HIV-TB epidemic in South Africa's Free State Province and develop appropriate, effective responses to the public health challenges co-infection with both diseases presents. A key aspect of the partnership focused on strengthening CHSRD’s data management capabilities, as well as its ability to efficiently disseminate research findings in Free State and throughout South Africa.
During the summer of 2008, CHSRD faculty participated in intensive courses in epidemiology, biostatistics, and
data management at Johns Hopkins University in
Maryland. Free State partners then traveled to SUNY Downstate for additional professional development training. What they learned is now bolstering their ability
to effectively conduct and evaluate scientific research.
In November 2008, two SUNY faculty members
travelled to Bloemfontein to conduct an advanced
training course on biostatistics and epidemiology for 28 researchers and public health managers from CHSRD and the University’s Department of Psychology and School of Nursing. Provincial and district level representatives of the Free State Department of Health and the Medical Research Council also attended this event.
SUNY faculty provided additional training and technical assistance on implementation science, operational
research, and counseling and testing, as well as one-on-one mentoring on how to prepare and present scientific research with a particular focus on current projects being conducted by CHSRD researchers.
SUNY also provided additional training on counseling and testing in support of the implementation phase of CHSRD’s ongoing TB VCT project. Partners will also continue work on various articles for
co-publication.
This partnership officially graduated from the Twinning Center's technical assistance program in 2010, but — in large part due to the organizational capacity developed through their PEPFAR-supported partnership — CHSRD was awarded direct funding from
CDC/South Africa in 2011 to implement a public health evaluation with the goal of increasing uptake of HIV
testing among TB patients
in Free State Province.
The CDC approved their revised protocol and has released funding for initiation of the project. AIHA is supporting their efforts
to manage and implement the intervention and analysis phases of the evaluation, in part through the placement of an
implementation science expert and a monitoring and evaluation expert through the Twinning Center’s Volunteer Healthcare Corps (VHC).
In addition, partners at CHSRD have received funds from CDC to evaluate TB infection control and integration of TB-HIV interventions in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province.
Updated November 15, 2011
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