Epidemiology

Mailman School’s International AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP) Faculty Address Key Issues in the Global Response to HIV

In a plenary session at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, Wafaa El-Sadr, MD, MPH, global director of the Mailman School of Public Health’s International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) and professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Columbia University, delivered a talk entitled “HIV and Inflammation: A Paradigm Shift,” in which she detailed mounting evidence about the role of inflammation and coagulation abnormalities in the pathogenesis of HIV disease and particularly in the occurrence of complications such as serious heart, liver, and kidney disease.

Dr. El-Sadr was one of the featured speakers at the fifth IAS conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention (IAS 2009) held July 19-22 on the latest developments in the areas of basic, clinical, and prevention science. IAS is the world’s largest open scientific conference on HIV/AIDS and a unique opportunity for the world’s leading scientists, clinicians, public health experts, and community leaders to examine the latest developments in HIV-related research, and to explore how scientific advances can inform the global response to HIV/AIDS.

According to Dr. El-Sadr, “Clinical HIV latency is a misperception. HIV may be causing damage during early HIV disease and when the virus is controlled with antiretroviral therapy (ART).”

Dr. El-Sadr and Miriam Rabkin, MD, associate clinical professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, also assisted in the planning of a groundbreaking pre-conference meeting on “Accelerating the Impact of HIV Programming on Health Systems Strengthening.” In a presentation entitled “HIV Program Design: Lessons Learned for a Broader Impact,” Dr. El-Sadr highlighted how HIV, as a chronic communicable disease, has inspired the establishment of health services uniquely able to respond to other health threats in resource-limited countries, particularly chronic non-communicable conditions.

Also at the conference, Elaine Abrams, MD, ICAP research director and professor of Pediatrics and Epidemiology, gave a symposium presentation on “Improving the Quality of Mother-to-Child Transmission Prevention Programs (PMTCT).” Dr. Abrams described innovations developed by the ICAP teams in Ethiopia and Lesotho in collaboration with in-country teams that address key challenges including engaging men in PMTCT and provision of women with interventions for their own health during pregnancy and post-partum periods.

A total of 11 other presentations included ICAP-affiliated individuals addressing various aspects of HIV-related issues such as: initiating ART in eight sub-Saharan African countries, ART initiation among adults in HIV care and treatment programs in Mozambique, scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-limited countries and issues regarding scale-up of medical male circumcision for HIV prevention, survival of infants initiating antiretroviral treatment, and nutrition support services in HIV care and treatment programs across nine sub-Saharan African countries.

About ICAP

ICAP is a global leader in supporting the scale-up of multidisciplinary HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment programs based on a family-focused approach. Currently, ICAP supports 818 sites in 14 resource-limited countries of sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, which provide HIV services to nearly 683,000 people, including antiretroviral treatment to more than 334,000 individuals. In addition, ICAP-supported sites have provided HIV counseling and testing services to nearly 600,000 pregnant women. For more information, visit the ICAP website.