Infectious disease faculty partner with South African colleagues to conduct research to reduce HIV transmission, including HIV prevention interventions for women, optimizing HIV treatment outcomes among women, including pregnant persons, and understanding the burden of high-risk HPV infection. They also conduct research to identify optimal, cost-effective screening strategies that decrease the burden of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in South African women during pregnancy and reduce adverse birth outcomes in an effort to update WHO’s syndromic management guidelines.
Another group from the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Department of Microbiology works to understand the mechanisms behind Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) an organism that can lie dormant for years but cause tuberculosis disease of varying levels of severity. The team is led by two UAB faculty members who have translational laboratories at the Africa Health Research Institute in KwaZulu-Natal, where they conduct research, training, and service into the biological and population-level impacts of Mtb persistence and subclinical TB in South Africa. Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI) is UAB’s Key Collaborative Partner for Southern Africa.
Other initiatives include UAB occupational therapists working to assist low-visioned people through increased occupational therapist programming and accessibility. UAB surgery faculty have learned to conduct transplants using kidneys from people who lived with HIV from faculty at the University of Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital and have in turn worked with the hospital to establish a paired exchange program.
Leading UAB Faculty for South Africa Initiatives
Partners
Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)
Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, South Africa
Foundation for Professional Development, Research Unit, East London, South Africa
Inkosi Albert Luthuli Central Hospital
Occupational Therapy Association of South Africa
School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town
South African National Health Laboratory Service
South African Optometric Association
UAB School of Health Professions
University of Cape Town's Groote Schuur Hospital
Wits RHI, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa