The HIV UEA has research and consultancy capacities that are applied to current HIV/AIDS policy priorities and debates, primarily around three strands: building response capacity; health policy and service delivery; and mitigation and social protection. Mixed disciplinary backgrounds and practical experience mean that HIV UEA policy research can be applied to both supply-side and user perspectives, notably pro-poor health policy monitoring and analysis and the access and affordability constraints and service needs of poor or vulnerable groups.
Projects:
Preparing for Future HIV Vaccine Trials: Strengthening Long Term Clinical and Laboratory Research Capacity, Cohort Development, and Collection of Epidemiological and Social Science Baseline Data in Uganda and Malawi
Janet Seeley is leading the social science team in this project, led by Dr Pontiano Kaleebu of the Uganda Virus Research Institute and funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.
This is a three-year project (2008-2011) that aims to strengthen capacity in Africa for phase II/III trials of HIV vaccine candidates, focusing on fishing community sites in Uganda and Malawi.
The objectives of the project are:
- To expand upon already existing high-risk cohorts and to identify new high-risk study populations in Uganda and Malawi through formative research and feasibility studies to ensure suitable cohorts are available for future large scale HIV vaccine trials.
- To incorporate methods from social science in order to enhance the ability to monitor and evaluate cohort development.
- To build on capacity and infrastructure in Uganda and Malawi for the conduct of phase II/III vaccine trials according to standards of ICH/GCP and GCLP.
- To develop an Africa-based training programme for clinicians and scientists.
- To contribute to data on virological and immunological characteristics from early/acute seroconverters and chronically infected persons.
Are fisherfolk a suitable candidate population for HIV vaccine trials in Uganda?
Janet Seeley was the Principal Investigator on this 7-month project (September 2007-April 2008) funded by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Janet has been working in collaboration with IAVI-Uganda and Dr Anthony Aboda and colleagues from Creative Research and Evaluation Centre, Kampala, Uganda and Dr Eddie Allison from the WorldFish Centre, who is a member of the UEA HIV UEA. This research was designed as a pilot study to develop a methodology for addressing the knowledge-gaps in our understanding of fisherfolk in Uganda and provide a means to assess the suitability of fishing ‘communities’ (or people within them) as candidates for participation in HIV vaccine research.
Coming back from the dead: adjusting to life with HIV as a chronic condition on antiretroviral therapy in rural Uganda
In July 2005 Steven Russell and Janet Seeley started longitudinal research in Uganda, using a case study household research design, to document and analyse the lives and livelihoods of people taking anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in a resource poor setting. They have been working in close collaboration with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in Uganda, who have been delivering ART to 1000 households in a Home-Based AIDS Care (HBAC) programme in Tororo and Busia districts, in collaboration with the Ugandan Ministry of Health and The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) of Uganda.
Delivering Antiretroviral Treatment in South Africa
Professor Max Bachmann (HIV UEA), based at the Medical School in UEA, has been working on several projects in South Africa in collaboration with the Free State Department of Health, the University of Cape Town Lung Institute, the South African Medical Research Council and other collaborators, for example:
- The effects of antiretroviral treatment on patients' health outcomes in a South African provincial government programme: a cohort study (from 2004);
- A randomised trial comparing nurse- and doctor-initiated antiretroviral primary care in two South African provinces’ (from 2005), also with the University of Toronto.
