My Internship Experience with the National Institute of Health

Summer 2014

Sidik Abdul-MumuniUSF-MPH Candidate

Introduction

NIH at Rockville, MD

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), a part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

NIH consist of 27 Institutes and Centers The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is one of the 27

institutes of the NIH The Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (DAIDS) The Office for Policy in Clinical Research Operations (OPCRO) is under the DAIDS

Where did I work: OPCRO

OPCRO mission is to manage and support the DAIDS clinical research and helps ensure compliance with applicable regulations, standards, and good clinical practice guidelines; study participant safety and welfare; and study quality and integrity.

Source: NIAID, NIH

What did I do?

Review protocols and make sure

research is done ethically

help in the development of clinical trial agreements

Project Work: PMTCT of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa-Introduction

So what is HIV mother-to-child transmission? The transmission of HIV infection from an HIV-

positive mother to her child during labor, pregnancy, breastfeeding or delivery is termed as mother-to-child HIV transmission.

Source: WHO, 2013 report on HIV

Project Work: PMTCT of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa

Summary statistics of the problem

of the ten countries worldwide in 2010 with the greatest numbers of HIV positive women, the top nine are all in sub-Saharan Africa

an estimated 260,000 children became infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa in 2012.

Source: Aizire et al. 2013, WHO report on PMTCT strategic vision, 2010

WHO recommendations

World Health Organization (WHO) 2013 guidelines recommends that all countries follow option B+ and in countries where this is not feasible, Option B should be adopted in the absence on B+ for the prevention of HIV mother-to-child transmission.

Option B+ has already been adopted successfully in some African countries such as Malawi and Rwanda.

National Institute of Health approach to this recommendation

MTCT of HIV is preventable (Boateng et al., 2013) and National Institute of Allergic and Infectious Disease (NIAID) within the NIH is in support of the WHO recommendation of Option B+ for the PMTCT.

Success of the program

According to the UNAIDS 2012 Regional Fact Sheet report, between 2009 and 2011, the number of children newly infected with HIV fell in sub-Saharan Africa by 24%.

Recommendation for the PMTCT in sub-Saharan Africa

Resources should be channeled towards education and also

Provide comprehensive primary prevention and family planning services among women and men of reproductive age

Conclusion

The fight against mother to child transmission of HIV is yet to be won. From the studies it is clear that some countries in Africa are still far behind with the battle. However, it is imperative to affirm the efforts achieved to date.

References Aizire, J. et al (2013) ' Operational issues and barriers to implementation of prevention of mother-to-child

transmission of HIV (PMTCT) interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa' Current HIV Research 11(2):144-159 Boateng, D., Kwapong, G., & Agyei-Baffour, P. (2013). Knowledge, perception about antiretroviral therapy (art)

and prevention of mother-to-child-transmission (pmtct) and adherence to art among hiv positive women in the ashanti region, ghana: A cross-sectional study. BMC Women's Health, 13(1), 2.

OPCRP/NIAID/NIH/HHSA The Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS. (2012). Regional fact sheet: sub-Saharan Africa. Retrieved

from: http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2012/gr2012/2012_FS_regional_ssa_en.pdf

World Health Organization. (2010). PMTCT strategic vision 2010–2015: preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV to reach the UNGASS and Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved from: http://www.who.int/hiv/pub/mtct/strategic_vision.pdf