Today is Caribbean American HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

The annual Caribbean-American Health/AIDS Awareness Day, recognized on the eighth day of Caribbean-American Heritage Month in the U.S., was created to provide Caribbean-Americans with resources, HIV/AIDS health education, evaluation, and opportunities for involvement.

As organizers write, "According to the Centers for Disease Control people of color now account for a greater proportion of AIDS cases reported. It is important to note that African-American are often view as one group, there is, in fact, a wide variety of populations in the US included under this heading are upper class, lower class, Christian, Muslim, inner city, suburban, descendants of slaves and recent Caribbean immigrants all come under the African-American heading. Current epidemiological surveillance does not record these social, cultural, economic, geographic, religious, and political differences that may accurately predict risk... Poor health, premature death and AIDS have challenged the extended Caribbean-American family in every part of the country to find new reservoirs of compassion, to increase our political voices, confront many difficult issues such as drug use, sexuality, poor health care which for generations, have been deemed unmentionable."

NCAHAAD is a day of hope for the future of a Caribbean and Caribbean American community with available preventive health care as a daily part of life and a Caribbean Diaspora free of AIDS. Learn more about NCAHAAD.

News from the CFAR

SBS Core CFAR Member Highlight: Dr. Charles Muiruri

In their recent newsletter, the Social and Behavioral Sciences Core shared a conversation with Dr. Charles Muiruri. A dually appointed faculty member in Population Health Sciences and Global Health, as well as a visiting lecturer at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College (KCMC) in Moshi, Tanzania, Dr. Muiruri has been involved in CFAR-related work for over 15 years. He currently runs the Health Services Research Scientific Working Group alongside Dr. Lance Okeke. The SBS Core spoke with him about his journey to health services research and learned more about his current studies. 

Dr. Muiruri is the recipient of a K Award which seeks to address barriers to anti-hypertensive medication adherence among people living with HIV who have achieved viral suppression. In addition to his K award, Dr. Muiruri is particularly excited about his CFAR Administrative Supplement that is using a photo elicitation qualitative approach to understand barriers to treatment goals for cardiometabolic disorders for PLWH in the Southeastern U.S.

Read the full conversation with Dr. Muiruri.

Apply for a CFAR Publication Grant by June 10 

If you have a paper currently accepted for publication, please apply by June 10, 2022 for a CFAR Publication Grant. This opportunity is open only to papers that are officially accepted by June 10^th, and the invoice must be processed by June 30th.

Using the application form, please submit the full paper, including abstract, the journal name, acceptance letter, and a brief description of the need for funds. Requests may be up to $1500, must come from active members of the Duke CFAR and the paper must specifically cite the Duke CFAR. Decisions will be made based on the number of requests and available funds. Priority may be given to high impact journals and/or junior investigators, but all levels are eligible.

Apply for a CFAR publication grant.

FHI360 Blog: Africans leading the research effort to control HIV and COVID-19 in Africa: The INTEREST Conference, Kampala, Uganda

"Sub-Saharan Africa is home to 25.3 million (67%) of the global total of 37.7 million people living with HIV infection (UNAIDS 2021). To control the epidemic in Africa, it is essential that solutions for Africa be generated and implemented in Africa. The INTEREST Conference –now in its sixteenth year– is an excellent example of international cooperation intended to advance the fight against HIV in Africa by cultivating African scientists and stimulating innovative solutions on the continent.

In 2007, a group of scientists, led by Elly Katabira (Uganda) and Joep Lange (The Netherlands), launched the INTEREST Conference (International Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention Research in Resource-Limited Settings) in Kampala, Uganda, to focus attention on the need for research and evidence to fight the HIV epidemic and address the shortage of HIV research capacity in Africa. INTEREST started off as an intimate gathering of about 200 scientists from Africa and other countries with a focus on stimulating African scientists to present their work, highlighting gaps in knowledge and application, and an explicit emphasis on mentoring. This year, during May 10-13, the conference was held again on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kampala as a hybrid meeting. A total of 439 in-person attendees and 143 virtual attendees, representing 45 countries, participated in this year’s conference. INTEREST was held virtually in 2020 and 2021. For many, the conference this year was their first in-person conference in more than two years and the enthusiasm was palpable!"

A blog posted by FHI360 details the exciting happenings at INTEREST 2022, and mentions numerous speakers and organizers, including Dr. Kwasi Torpey, chair of the INTEREST conference scientific committee. Dr. Kwasi Torpey (Professor and Head of Department at the Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the University of Ghana) and Dr. Guido Ferrari (Professor in Surgery and Research Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke and Director of the Duke CFAR Immunology Core) are the recipients of the NIH-sponsored R13 grant that supported the attendance of 38 African early stage investigators to the conference. This is the 6th R13 award received by Dr. Ferrari to support the conference since 2015; the previous awards were received in collaboration with Dr. Catherine Hankins (Professor of Public and Population Health, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, Canada), and all of them are within the CFAR effort to support the global education of young investigators in the field of HIV research.

Read more about the highlights from INTEREST 2022.

Sauti ya Vijana (SYV; The Voice of Youth): Longitudinal Outcomes of an Individually Randomized Group Treatment Pilot Trial for Young People Living with HIV in Tanzania.

Dow DE, O'Donnell KE, Mkumba L, Gallis JA, Turner EL, Boshe J, Shayo AM, Cunningham CK, Mmbaga BT.

AIDS Behav. 2022 Jun;26(6):2015-2025. doi: 10.1007/s10461-021-03550-z. Epub 2022 Jan 24.

Perspectives of HIV specialists and cardiologists on the specialty referral process for people living with HIV: a qualitative descriptive study.

Muiruri C, Corneli A, Cooper L, Dombeck C, Gray S, Longenecker CT, Meissner EG, Okeke NL, Pettit AC, Swezey T, Vicini J, Bloomfield GS.

BMC Health Serv Res. 2022 May 9;22(1):623. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08015-0.

Developing lay summaries and thank you notes in paediatric pragmatic clinical trials.

Zimmerman KO, Perry B, Hanlen-Rosado E, Nsonwu A, Lane MD, Benjamin DK, Becker M, Corneli A; Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act-Pediatric Trials Network Steering Committee.

Health Expect. 2022 Jun;25(3):1029-1037. doi: 10.1111/hex.13448. Epub 2022 Mar 4.

A neutralizing antibody target in early HIV-1 infection was recapitulated in rhesus macaques immunized with the transmitted/founder envelope sequence.

Welbourn S, Chakraborty S, Yang JE, Gleinich AS, Gangadhara S, Khan S, Ferrebee C, Yagnik B, Burton S, Charles T, Smith SA, Williams D, Mopuri R, Upadhyay AA, Thompson J, Price MA, Wang S, Qin Z, Shen X, Williams LD, Eisel N, Peters T, Zhang L, Kilembe W, Karita E, Tomaras GD, Bosinger SE, Amara RR, Azadi P, Wright ER, Gnanakaran S, Derdeyn CA.

PLoS Pathog. 2022 May 3;18(5):e1010488. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010488. eCollection 2022 May.

Inhibition of infection-induced vascular permeability modulates host leukocyte recruitment to Mycobacterium marinum granulomas in zebrafish.

Kam JY, Cheng T, Garland DC, Britton WJ, Tobin DM, Oehlers SH.

Pathog Dis. 2022 Apr 29;80(1):ftac009. doi: 10.1093/femspd/ftac009.

Predictors of Self-repackaging of Antiretroviral Therapy in Northern Tanzania.

Semvua SK, Kim CY, Muiruri C, Peter TA, Mmbaga BT, Bartlett JA, Zullig LL, Jazowski SA, Knettel BA, Karia FP, Ramadhani HO.

Am J Health Behav. 2022 Apr 20;46(2):124-133. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.46.2.3.

PMID: 35501963

Uptake and correlates of cervical cancer screening among women attending a community-based multi-disease health campaign in Kenya.

Choi Y, Ibrahim S, Park LP, Cohen CR, Bukusi EA, Huchko MJ.

BMC Womens Health. 2022 Apr 18;22(1):122. doi: 10.1186/s12905-022-01702-4.

COVID-19 Trials: Who Participates and Who Benefits?

Narayanasamy S, Mourad A, Turner NA, Le T, Rolfe RJ, Okeke NL, O'Brien SM, Baker AW, Wrenn R, Rosa R, Rockhold FW, Naggie S, Stout JE.

South Med J. 2022 Apr;115(4):256-261. doi: 10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001374.

Endemic mycoses: geographical distribution is still a work in progress - Authors' reply.

Le T, Pasqualotto AC, Thompson GR 3rd.

Lancet Infect Dis. 2022 Apr;22(4):451-452. doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00121-9.

Understanding Retention in Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Care in the South: Insights from an Academic HIV Prevention Clinic.

Burns CM, Borges M, Frye J, Keicher K, Elliott S, Schwartz S, Shipp K, Okeke NL, McKellar MS.

AIDS Res Hum Retroviruses. 2022 Apr;38(4):306-312. doi: 10.1089/AID.2021.0177.

Don't see your paper listed? Make sure your publication is linked to the CFAR grant for funding. Visit the CFAR website for example text to use when acknowledging the CFAR and assistance by its Cores in your publications, abstracts, grant proposals, and presentations.

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