In the hope of stemming one of the biggest public health crises in Southeast Asia, Yale University is partnering with the University of Malaya to fight the spread of HIV among drug users in Malaysia who are completing prison terms and transitioning back into the community. The two universities recently signed a letter of intent expressing their continued commitment to this partnership, which is funded by a $4.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Malaysia suffers from one of the worst HIV epidemics among drug users in Southeast Asia. Seventy percent of HIV transmission is linked to injection drug use, primarily of opioids. Malaysia’s strict policy of incarceration for drug users has resulted in over 6 percent of its prisoners being HIV-infected, three times the rate in U.S. prisons.

Yale and the University of Malaya will share academic and research resources to find new ways to reduce HIV transmission in the prison community. Among other things, the study will examine the use of methadone, a treatment for heroin addiction, compared to an evidence-based behavioral intervention.

“The time just after release into the community is a vulnerable time period for prisoners. This study will examine pre-release interventions as a way to curb the HIV epidemic,” said Frederick L. Altice, M.D., a professor at the Yale School of Medicine and director of Clinical and Community Research at the Yale AIDS Program, who is the project’s principal investigator.

Altice, a pioneer in research and clinical care at the interface of infectious diseases and substance abuse, began several innovative health delivery programs in the U.S., including the HIV in Prison Program and the Community Health Care Van, in the early 1990s. Altice is the principal investigator on clinical and research activities that include more than nine active federal grants, including integrating buprenorphine into HIV treatment, community-based treatments for HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis infections, and HIV prevention. The current grant in Malaysia is the centerpiece of several prison re-entry research projects in the U.S. and Malaysia.

The Yale School of Medicine has been collaborating with the University of Malaya since 2005. The NIH grant will fund research activities, education and technical assistance, mentoring of students and junior faculty members, and community service.

“Both universities recognize that our scholars can create better synergy in research through greater collaboration, education and the exchange of information concerning HIV prevention and treatment and substance abuse,” Altice said.

Professor Adeeba Kamarulzaman, M.D., director of the Centre of Excellence for Research in AIDS (CERiA), serves as a co-investigator and site principal investigator on this project for the University of Malaya. “The outcomes of this study will provide policy-makers with firm data about how to stem the HIV epidemic in other settings where HIV transmission is fueled by injection drug use,” Kamarulzaman said.

Kamarulzaman is an internationally recognized leader in HIV prevention and treatment and has been involved in the implementation of syringe exchange and other harm reduction activities in Malaysia. She also serves as the president of the Malaysia AIDS Council, the largest HIV/AIDS non-governmental organization in the country. The research team is complemented by the contributions of Michael Copenhaver, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at the University of Connecticut and Hussain Habil, M.D., head of psychiatry at the University of Malaya.

Source
Yale University

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Lack Of Funds Prevents HIV-Positive People In Uganda From Receiving Antiretroviral Treatment

Some health service providers in Uganda have had to turn away “HIV patients who qualify to receive free antiretroviral therapy,” because the “credit crunch” has created a lack of funds, the Observer reports. Uganda’s antiretroviral program is about 95 percent donor-funded, according to the Observer, which writes that the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and PEPFAR are the two major contributors to the program (Bogere, 7/5).

Yemen Times Examines Malaria In Yemen

The Yemen Times reports though the disease “is preventable, curable and practically nonexistent in the rest of the Middle East,” 160,000 cases were reported in Yemen last year, but officials estimate that as many as 900,000 people had malaria. Since the government does not know how many people contract malaria every year, or “exactly where they are infected,” education and communication are some of the major obstacles to malaria control in the country (Murdock/Al-Hilaly, 7/6).

IRIN Examines Shortcomings Of Global Response To Seasonal Hunger

IRIN examines how donor and government mischaracterization of seasonal hunger as an emergency situation caused by conflict or natural disaster limits the response to recurring hunger. “Anti-poverty programmes deal with chronic hunger and poverty and emergency programmes deal with short-term crises but no one is focusing on routine hunger,” Stephen Devereux, an Institute of Development Studies research fellow and author of a new book on seasonal hunger, said. The Institute of Development Studies will hold a conference on Wednesday on how to support populations facing seasonal hunger - “the first time global experts convene to discuss this theme in 30 years,” IRIN writes (7/3).

Maternal Deaths In Zimbabwe Largely Preventable

Seventy-three percent of maternal deaths in Zimbabwe can be prevented by “affordable interventions,” according to a report published by the Ministry of Health and Child in partnership with various other groups, the Standard reports. Among the highest causes of maternal death were HIV/AIDS (25.5 percent), postpartum hemorrhage (14.4), hypertension (13 percent) and puerperal sepsis or infection (7.8 percent). The Standard writes, “‘The sad thing is that interventions exist to treat complications, and deaths from them are avoidable,’ says the report. ‘None of the interventions are complex or beyond the capacity of a functional health system in Zimbabwe’” (Shoko, 7/4).

Polio Immunization Campaign Launched In Nigeria

A national polio immunization campaign attempting to reach 800,000 children ages five years and below in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto kicked off over the weekend, the Daily Triumph reports. “The Director of Primary Healthcare in the state, Dr. Abdulrazaq Gandi said that over one million doses of polio vaccines were distributed to the local governments in the state,” and trained personnel “had been deployed across the state to ensure the success of the exercise,” the newspaper writes (Ado, 7/6).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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dailyreports.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily U.S. HIV/AIDS Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at dailyreports.kff.org.

© Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.