HIV & AIDS and STI | ICRH

A large proportion of HIV infected persons - ranging from an estimated 15% to over 50% in EU countries - are unaware of their infection, and therefore do not benefit from treatment and may transmit HIV to others, unknowingly. There is evidence that many opportunities are being missed to diagnose HIV infections in EU countries, particularly in health care settings. ECDC has commissioned ICRH to carry out a study on HIV testing policies, practices and barriers to HIV testing in the EU Member States.

To introduce HIV education on larger scale, it is necessary to know which programmes are effective in reducing sexual risk behavior in young people and which programmes generate only few results. A large problem in evaluating programs is that sexual behavior cannot be observed directly and that it is influenced by a large variety of determinants. The main objectives of this project are to development a theoretical model of the determinants of sexual risk behavious and to assess the utility and effectiveness of this model in HIV prevention programmes among children and youth in Rwanda.

During the last few years many governments and organisations have been financing and implementing HIV/AIDS prevention projects in sub-Sahara Africa. One of the methods used in HIV prevention that has known a steep upsurge is peer education.  The Rwandan Red Cross, with the support of the Belgian Red Cross, has used this methods in its programmes in Rwanda. Because of the succes, the Red Cross aims to scale-up its programme. In that context, research is needed to study the critical success or failure factors of this method.

The project called 'Integrated Network Combating HIV/AIDS' is a project in Mozambique, funded by the Flemish International Cooperation Agency and implemented by four partners: The Provincial  Health Department of Tete, 'Médecins sans frontières'-Belgium, the Institute of Tropical Medicine and ICRH. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen the provincial health system to deliver quality HIV/AIDS services. ICRH is responsible for strenghtening the PMTCT and STI care programmes, as well as the provision of reproductive health services to vulnerable populations at high-risk and capacity building of the provincial health authorities.

The study prepares two sites (in Kigali and Mombasa) for Phase I, II and III clinical microbicide trials.

The overall objective of this project is to develop and apply dynamic epidemiological microsimulation models to assess the expected impact of microbicides on HIV incidence and HIV prevalence. These models will be applied in a population of female sex workers and their clients in Mombasa, Kenya. The expected impact of microbicides on HIV incidence and HIV prevalence is a function of the intrinsic efficacy of the modeled microbicide and the behavioral, demographical and epidemiological dynamics of the population in which the microbicides are introduced.

Education and training can play a vital role in the fight against HIV/AIDS. They can inform and empower children and youth and thereby have a direct impact on the evolution of the epidemic. Education and training can as well have an impact on society, by changing social norms, fighting stigma and discrimination or triggering economic development and thereby have an indirect impact on the evolution of HIV/AIDS. At the same time, the already under resourced and overcharged education systems in sub-Saharan Africa are also affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

In the context of the University Development Cooperation, the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), Mozambique, was selected as a partner institution of the VLIR-UDC-programme ‘Institutional University Cooperation’. The implementation of the Partner Programme with UEM (2008-2013) is coordinated by professor Marleen Temmerman. The programme is being implemented inter-university and has as central theme ‘Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS’. It comprises, in this first phase, 8 projects. Five projects address a sub-theme of the central theme and 3 projects will strengthen capacity in specific areas.