HIV and STDs
Infectious disease faculty at UNC have been working in China since the country opened to the West. IGHID director Dr. Myron Cohen has been studying HIV and STDs in China since 1990.
Official Chinese government reports estimate that there are about 700,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in China, although some experts believe the number could be as high as 1 million. While this figure represents only a fraction of China’s population, the high prevalence of infection among certain high-risk groups has the potential to fuel a greatly expanded epidemic.
China also has the world’s largest syphilis epidemic. In 2007 an average of one baby per hour was born with congenital syphilis. Syphilis increases the risk of HIV acquisition and transmission.
Partners
The Institute for Global Health & Infectious Diseases partners with a number of Chinese academic institutions and governmental organizations.
China Center for Disease Control and Prevention
China Integrated Programs for Research on AIDS (CIPRA)
China State Food and Drug Administration
National Center for STD and Leprosy Control (NCSTD)
Peking Union Medical College
Renmin University of China
Tsinghua University
Partnership for Social Science Research on HIV/AIDS in China
With a 5-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Development, UNC investigators in medicine, public health, dentistry, and journalism and mass communication, together with their Chinese collaborators, are exploring the underlying social and structural forces that shape the HIV epidemic in China. The research examines the potential of social scientists to collaborate with public health researchers in order to impact the trajectory of the HIV epidemic. The project aims to develop a cohort of young Chinese social scientists committed to HIV prevention in the country. This team will work to establish critical and sustainable infrastructure and emergent intervention plans and facilitate rapid technology transfer.
Contact: Gail Henderson
AIDS International Training and Research Program (AITRP)
Now in its 11th year, this training program supports long- and short-term HIV/AIDS research training. IGHID partners with the China CDC and the NCSTD in Nanjing to recruit trainees who will be hired at these and other Chinese institutions after they leave the program. Most of the training is done at UNC in the Schools of Medicine and Global Public Health.
The AITRP program is sponsored by the NIH Fogarty International Center. Over the past 20 years, the program has trained nearly 2,000 foreign researchers, most of whom remain in their home countries to battle the epidemic, train young scientists, and move into government health leadership.
Graduates of the UNC AITRP program have become government leaders and policy makers, directors of public health programs, and academic faculty who are themselves training young HIV researchers.
UNC also has AITRP programs in Malawi and Cameroon.
Contact: Ada Adimora
Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program (FICRS)
UNC co-sponsors an official training site of the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program. The program supports one-year of international clinical research training U.S. students (scholars) and post-docs (fellows) in the health professions.
The UNC training site is located at the NCSTD in Nanjing, the nation's leading center for the prevention and control of STDs. UNC partners with NCSTD to identify health scientists, clinicians, and allied health workers in China to participate in the joint research training program.
FICRS grants for full research training programs are awarded to U.S. institutions with strong HIV-related research training experience and with HIV-related international research collaborations.
Contact: Myron Cohen or Kirsten Leysieffer
