Central Africa
Godfrey Woelk, Principal Investigator
RTI International
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA
This application proposes to establish an International Epidemiologic Database to Evaluate AIDS (IEDEA) Regional Center to harmonize HIV data collection in Region 9 - Central Africa. A regional data center, backstopped by Research Triangle International (RTI), Research Triangle Park, North Carolina will be located in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at the University of North Carolina/DRC (UNC/DRC) HIV/AIDS Clinical Research Unit at the Kinshasa School of Public Health.
This multi-step research and capacity building process will occur through regional expansion/reinforcement of the existing partnerships between the UNC's School of Public Health, 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, Central African Republic, Congo/Brazzaville, 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.
Regional Publications
Alcohol and antriretroviral adherence? What about Africa?
Van geertruyden JP, Woelk G, Mukumbi H, Hartwell T, Ryder R, Colebunders R
In press, JAIDS
Immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome in patients starting antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Müller M, Wandel S, Colebunders R, Attia S, Furrer H, Egger M; IeDEA Southern and Central Africa
Lancet Infect Dis. 2010 Apr;10(4):251-61
Risk factors for Kaposi’s Sarcoma among HIV-seropositive individuals from Central Africa
Smith JS, Hartwell T, Song P, Hemingway J, N'Dom P, Mukumbi H, Niyongabo T, Woelk G, Ryder R
Submitted, International Journal of Cancer. May 2010