Sites Tanzania - KIWAKKUKI
| SITES:
Adelaide |
Beijing |
Brazil |
Darwin |
Haiti |
Indian Health Service |
Kenya |
Nicaragua |
Oxford |
Philippines |
Singapore |
Tanzania |
Thailand |
Sri Lanka | |
|
Site: Tanzania-KIWAKKUKI Location : Moshi, Tanzania Academic Affiliation: Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre Site Director : Dafrosa Itemba Executive Director
|
Background: KIWAKKUKI (Kiswahili acronym for Kikundi cha Wanawake Kilimanjaro Kupambana na Ukimwi, or Kilimanjaro Women Fighting Vigorously Against AIDS) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that formed 15 years ago as a grass-roots community based organization to fight AIDS. KIWAKKUKI has established educational programs for HIV awareness and prevention, a home-based care program for persons living with HIV/AIDS, a model orphan care program for children orphaned as a result of HIV/AIDS and a Centre for Hope that provides psychosocial support and income generating activities for HIV-infected clients. With the assistance of collaborators at Duke University and with funding from Roche, KIWAKKUKI began an HIV Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) service in March 2003. This program has provided testing to over three thousand clients and has become a model program for integrating research with service. For example, a recent cost effective analysis of this program demonstrated that the provision of free VCT services (as opposed to requiring a modest co-payment of $1) results in increased testing volumes, optimizes testing efficiency, and ultimately proves to be a highly cost effective means of averting HIV infection (American Journal of Public Health , in press). Because of these results, VCT is now offered free at KIWAKKUKI. |
|||
Clinical Opportunities: In addition to participating in the VCT project, Duke trainees have been involved in a variety of palliative and supportive care activities provided by KIWAKKUKI to persons living with HIV/AIDS in the Kilimanjaro Region. |
Research: Current research efforts integrated into the service environment at KIWAKKUKI include investigations of risk factors for HIV infection among clients presenting for VCT and community-based follow-up of patients enrolled in antiretroviral clinical trials. A longitudinal study of HIV-associated events among individuals recently diagnosed with HIV infection is also being planned and will be conducted under the aegis of the NIH-funded International Studies of AIDS Associated Co-infections (ISAAC) project. |
|||
|