 Message from HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside I have just three weeks of sabbatical left. It has been good to be in the northern hemisphere through a spring, summer and now an autumn. HEARD's Gender and HIV and AIDS Project Gender and gender inequalities are a central aspect in the transmission of HIV throughout the world, particularly in southern and eastern Africa South African Work-Family Symposium The South African Work-Family Symposium where employers can gauge their own progress on work-family policy against other players in the industry will take place on 30 November in Cape Town. Increasing African Capacity Central to HEARD's Capacity Building agenda, the Young Researchers Initiative (YRI) aims to provide support to young researchers based in eastern and southern Africa to produce high quality, accessible research on HIV/AIDS. At Last, Progress in Developing an AIDS Vaccine According to recent media reports, an experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut risk of infection. HEARD's Director, Prof Alan Whiteside was invited by OUPblog to post his views on this recent development which he says this will lead to new investment and energy in the development of vaccines. OUPblog is Oxford University Press' blogosphere for learning, understanding and reflection. A New HEARD Research Agenda on XDR-TB In response to the emergence of drug resistant TB in South Africa, HEARD has set up a research project to explore the reasons for the high levels of hospital transmission of XDR-TB.   | Newsletter Issue 1 October 2009 In response to the emergence of drug resistant TB in South Africa, HEARD has set up a research project to explore the reasons for the high levels of hospital transmission of XDR-TB. "Healthcare workers are putting their life on the line, simply by doing their job. Nurses, doctors and other clinical staff are at a higher risk of contracting drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) than the general population," said HEARD researcher, Andrew Gibbs. Gibbs,in conjunction with Marian Loveday of MRC, Dr. Nesri Padayatchi of CAPRISA, Dr Max O'Donnell of CAPRISA and Boston University and Dr Jenn Zelnick of Salem State, recently launched the new project in order to explore why this is the case. "XDR-TB is a South African epidemic with serious consequences. Treatment is difficult or impossible, and the majority of people who contract XDR-TB die from it. Originally it was thought that XDR-TB was increasing as a result of patients not taking their medications properly, and so developing drug resistance. However, current research suggests that XDR-TB is more often transmitted from one person to another, and that healthcare workers are particularly vulnerable to infection," added Gibbs. The new research project will explore why healthcare workers are particularly at risk of contracting XDR-TB and will provide a social science perspective, which has been lacking in previous research on XDR-TB. It will be carried out in public health care facilities in KwaZulu-Natal, the epicenter of XDR-TB in South Africa, and will be conducted in conjunction with a range of other organisations that have medical research experience and knowledge of XDR-TB. |
