Kathryn Anastos, Principal Investigator
Montefiore Medical Center
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

http://www.ca-iedea.org/

This research project proposes to establish an International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS (IEDEA) Regional Center to harmonize HIV data collection in Region 9-Central Africa.

This multi-step research and capacity building process will occur through regional expansion/reinforcement of the existing partnerships between the Kinshasa School of Public Health, RTI and the DRC's Programme National Multisectoriel de Lutte contre le SIDA (PNMLS). Additional international collaborators are: (1) Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp, Belgium; (2) Institut National d'Etudes Demographiques Research Unites Mortalite Sante Epidemiologie et Population and Developpement, Paris, France; (3) Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement and Department of International Health, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France.

Region 9 collaborators from Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda include HIV/AIDS clinicians/care providers, representatives of national HIV programs, and faculty from national medical schools.

Our regional consortium has 20,200 patients currently on ARV’s in a database and is following an additional 46,000 HIV-infected individuals who are not yet eligible to receive ART. Harmonization of data across our region is the initial goal. When this is in place, our proposed research agenda will include: (1) Identifying new region-appropriate models of HIV care and systems for monitoring its efficacy; (2) Monitoring sentinel populations for ARV resistance; (3) Determining the role the high rate of genetic diversity for HIV seen in this region plays on ARV resistance.