The Baltic AIDS Training and Education Center

From 2008 until 2012 when USAID suspended all activities in the Russian Federation, AIHA — as prime implementing partner of the WHO Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia — collaborated with the St. Petersburg City AIDS Center, Pavlov State Medical University, the Republican Infectious Disease Hospital at Ust-Izhora, and other strategic partners to improve institutional and human resource capacity to support the ongoing scale-up of high quality HIV/AIDS care and treatment services in the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

This project was funded by USAID, WHO, the German BACKUP Initiative, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and Global Fund national principal recipients, and other international donor organizations.

The Baltic ATEC carried out its mission by:

  • Developing expertise among health and allied professionals;
  • Building local training capacity; and
  • Amassing a body of evidence-based information resources on HIV/AIDS treatment and care.

The St. Petersburg AIDS Center served as the administrative base of the Baltic ATEC, leading a core group of strategic partners that are all centers of clinical excellence. Strategic partner institutions served as training sites for specific topical areas.

The Baltic ATEC was a key training affiliate of the Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV/AIDS in Eurasia. Through its affiliation with the Regional Knowledge Hub, the Baltic ATEC and its strategic partners played a pivotal role in providing HIV/AIDS training to health and allied professionals in Central Asia and elsewhere in the CIS.

It offered more than 35 courses on the following key topical areas:

  • HIV Medicine
  • Adult Care and Treatment
  • Pediatric Care and Treatment
  • HIV/AIDS Nursing
  • HIV/AIDS Palliative Care
  • Treatment of Patients Co-infected with HIV, TB, and Hepatitis B and/or C
  • ART for Injecting Drug Users
  • Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT)
  • Case Management
  • Organization of Care
  • HIV/AIDS Laboratory Services
  • Faculty Development & Training-of-Trainers

Several courses offered by the Baltic ATEC — including a continuing education course titled “HIV Medicine” that features 20 modules covering all aspects of HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support — qualified as certified continuing education credits for health professionals through the Pavlov State Medical University.

The Baltic ATEC’s activities and expanded scope built on the foundation of the St. Petersburg AIDS Education and Training Center, which was established by AIHA, the St. Petersburg City AIDS Center, and other key HIV/AIDS-related institutions in St. Petersburg in 2006 in support of the Bratislava Initiatives, a series of Russian-American presidential agreements designed to jointly develop capacity strengthening resources related to the global AIDS crisis.