HIV-AIDS_SHPI.asp

Strategic Health Partnership Initiative -
Russian-American Cooperation in HIV/AIDS Capacity Building

AIHA is partnering with Russia’s Ministry of Health and Social Development to implement the Strategic Health Partnership Initiative. With support from USAID, this innovative three-year program expands on the 2005 Bratislava Initiatives, a joint Russian-American presidential agreement designed to strengthen cooperation on a number of cross-cutting issues, including the global fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Strategic Health Partnership Initiative harnesses the expertise of US and Russian medical communities to bolster HIV/AIDS capacity in Russia by developing postgraduate level curricula and establishing AIDS Training and Education Centers, and strengthen Russia’s capacity to provide professional assistance to developing and transitioning nations around the globe, particularly as relates to laboratory services for HIV, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases.

In close collaboration with the Ministry of Health and USAID, AIHA established an advisory board comprised of decision-makers from Russia’s Ministry of Health and Social Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry, USAID, and other strategic partners. AIHA also formed two working groups — one to direct the Russian postgraduate training component and another to lead the third country laboratory component and is partnering with Moscow State University of Medicine and Dentistry and Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy to develop undergraduate and postgraduate training programs on HIV/AIDS.

In 2010 AIHA and its partners plan to develop one additional HIV course and print Russian and English-language versions of an HIV manual for students from developing countries who attend medical school in Russia. Developed through the project, this manual will help to better prepare these individuals to provide quality care in their own countries. Other plans for the coming year include conducting a series of Training-of-Trainer courses to introduce the newly developed material in Russia and elsewhere in Eurasia and helping to establish a regional training center on HIV care and treatment in Central Asia.

AIHA’s HIV/AIDS Twinning Center program and the Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia play a crucial role in strengthening Russia’s international technical assistance strategy. Working with MedBusiness Consulting, AIHA deployed nine Russian laboratory experts for long-term mentorship
assignments in 2009, with nine more slated for deployment by April 2010. Mentors provided technical assistance on HIV and TB lab diagnostics in Botswana; a national rabies control and prevention program in Ethiopia; and quality control in HIV diagnostics, pathomorphology, and forensic medicine in Tanzania. Their significant
contributions toward building lab capacity have been recognized by the ministries of health and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with their laboratory counterparts, in all three countries.

Key accomplishments as of October 2009 include:

> 4 curricula — postgraduate courses on HIV and associated diseases; care for HIV patients co-infected with hepatitis B
or C; and HIV prevention in dentistry; as well as an undergraduate HIV course for international students —
were developed in 2009 and are being certified

> HIV Manual for foreign students studying at Russian medical schools developed
> 9 Russian laboratory mentors have been placed in Botswana, Ethiopia,and Tanzania to date

For a PDF overview of the Strategic Health Partnership Initiative in both English and Russian, please click here.

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