Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases

Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a major cause of illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Antiretroviral therapy (ART) to treat HIV has been made freely available through global support and is saving millions of lives in SSA. Data has been collected on people living with HIV (PLWH) who have received ART for over two decades at African clinics like the Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases in Nairobi, Kenya. Analyzing this rich resource of longitudinal data can contribute towards understanding the best methods to treat HIV as well as the non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that are associated with it. TREE has been helping the Coptic Hospital treat HIV since 2004 and its Hope Center oversees over 25 faith-based HIV clinics across Kenya.

Aims

1. Support the Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases in its provision of high-quality HIV treatment and prevention services in Kenya.
2. Train Kenyan and American healthcare workers, students, and faculty in data collection, analysis, and writing as well as in the delivery of clinical and public health care.
3. Analyze information gathered at the Hope Center on HIV treatment and its association with opportunistic infections and NCDs to improve best practices for PLWH.

Approach

TREE is facilitating interaction, partnership, and learning between the clinical and monitoring and evaluation (M&E) teams at the Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases and faculty and students at Emory University. Coptic and Emory co-investigators work together to understand and analyze the data being collected at the Hope Center to answer questions relevant to improving care for PLWH. Through regular online and in-person meetings, Kenyans and Americans are collaborating on HIV research, learning how to best deliver HIV clinical and public health care, submitting manuscripts to journals, and presenting at national and international conferences.

Funding

The Coptic Hope Center for Infectious Diseases is supported by a grant from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Kenya.