International Core Pilot Awards
2007 Pilot Award
Formative Research to Assess MSM Acceptability and Willingness to Participate
in a Circumcision Trial
Pedro Goicochea
Lima PERU
The aim of this project is to assess the feasibility of implementing a male circumcision intervention in four cities in South America. Given the potential costs and challenges of a randomized trial of circumcision among MSM in Latin America, where circumcision rates are low and the efficacy in HIV prevention could be evaluated, the team at INMENSA proposed to obtain key information related to motivations, barriers, and factors related to willingness to participate among the target population of MSM as well as an assessment of support for such a trial among policymakers.
2007 Pilot Award
Extraordinarily low levels of HIV-1 infection in China
Tuofu Zhu
Guangzhou CHINA
This study builds on collaborative activities between investigators at the University of Washington and at multiple clinical sites including Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Hospitals for Infectious Diseases at Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Center for Sexual Disease Control at Shenzhen, and Jinan University. The primary goal of this pilot study is to initiate a screening for extraordinarily low level HIV-1 infections (ELLHI) from high risk populations in China by taking advantage of newly developed ultra-sensitive high throughput PCR. Data generated from this innovative pilot project will support a full-scale NIH grant aiming to screen more rigorously for ELLHI worldwide in order establish a novel ELLHI cohort that allows for a comprehensive definition of the factors that may account for this unique control of HIV-1 infection and may provide important information to add in the design of vaccines and new therapy.
2006 Pilot Award
Promotion of Couples HIV Counseling and Addressing Barriers to HIV
Disclosure and Willingness of Men to be tested for HIV in East Africa
Connie Celum, Nelly Mugo
KENYA, TANZANIA and UGANDA
The International Core granted a funds for this pilot study to be conducted in association with the Gates Foundation funded Partners in Prevention project. Investigators aim to 1)facilitate uptake of couples HIV counseling and testing; 2) support HIV disclosure by providing talking points and materials to post-test clubs, VCT and HIV care clinics; and 3) address common barriers to men's willingness to be tested, conducting focus groups and pilot community mobilization efforts targeting promotion of couples testing.
2006 Pilot Award
Supporting Antiretroviral Adherence and HIV-1 Transmission Risk Reduction: Using
Personal Digital Assistants to Standardize Counseling and Assess Patient Behaviors.
Ann Kurth, Elizabeth Ngugi
Nairobi KENYA
This second 2006 pilot award supports work implementing PDA based counseling with nurses and patients in Nairobi Kenya. The study hypothesizes that ART adherence and HIV transmission risk reduction can be improved by training delivered to front-line HIV clinical providers on, and evaluated among HIV-positive patients, by PDAs. The PDA tool is adapted from a previous study in Peru, and findings from this study will be used as pilot data in the design of a larger randomized controlled trial in Kenya.
2005 Pilot Award
Widow Inheritance and HIV: Where does the inheritor fit in the risk puzzle?
Kawango Agot
Kisumu KENYA
Dr Agot received her PhD in Epidemiology as a Fogarty scholar has been field site coordinator for the recent successfully completed male circumcision trial in Kisumu. Through a 2005 Pilot Award, the International Core has supported her innovative study of widow inheritors and HIV risk which commenced in September of 2006 with 1,304 participants.
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