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Knowledge Hub Newswire - Vol.2 No.5 (Summer 2006)

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Snapshot

These statistics reflect the Regional Knowledge Hub’s activities from its inception in March 2004 through August 2006

  • Knowledge Hub courses held: 77
  • Healthcare professionals trained: 1833
    • Ukraine: 915
    • Russia: 807
    • Azerbaijan: 29
    • Kazakhstan: 29
    • Tajikistan: 19
    • Uzbekistan: 14
    • Moldova: 9
    • Belarus: 10
    • Kyrgyzstan: 1

Ukrainian physicians who have earned nationally recognized advanced professional certification in adult/adolescent or pediatric AIDS treatment through the Knowledge Hub: 107

Knowledge Hub Calendar

The following events are scheduled to take place at the Knowledge Hub or affiliated centers September–November 2006

 

UKRAINE

 

HIV/AIDS and Cross-Sectoral Cooperation (for Head Physicians from TB Dispensaries)
September 13 - 15, 2006 – Kyiv

20 chief doctors of Oblast Tuberculosis (TB) dispensaries will participate in this course. The objective of the training is not only to provide trainees with essential information on Coordination of HIV-infection and TB control measures at the regional level; peculiarities of TB treatment in HIV positive patients etc but also to facilitate cooperation with Oblast AIDS Prevention and Treatment Centers. It is expected that this training will promote better diagnosis of HIV-associated TB and timely treatment of HIV positive patients with co-infection and decrease HIV-related stigma and discrimination at TB dispensaries.

Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for Adults
September 18 - 22, 2006 – Donetsk

30 infectious disease doctors from different rayons of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kyiv oblast will participate in this training. The course will cover topics such as counseling, components of HIV/AIDS care, goals of ART, general overview of ART drugs, roles and responsibilities of care team members, national ART protocols, indications for and management of ART, switching regimens, and ART for women of reproductive age. The participants will have an opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge and to practice their clinical skills during the didactical and practical break-out sessions. Two new local faculty who have recently completed TOT – one from Donetsk and one from Kyiv – will be involved in the training for the first time.

Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for Adults
September 25 - 29, 2006 – Simferopol

With the increasing access to ART in Ukraine more infectious disease doctors need to be trained in ART management. This course will be conducted for infectious disease doctors from Mykolayiv, Odessa oblasts and from AR of Crimea. This will also be debut for two new local faculty from Mykolayiv Oblast and Crimean Republican AIDS Centers who have recently completed Knowledge Hub TOT.

Training courses in Ukraine will be conducted within the framework of the project “Strengthen the capacity of the AIDS healthcare system in Ukraine through the provision of a comprehensive unified professional training program”, supported by International HIV/AIDS Alliance within GFATM-funded project “Overcoming HIV/AIDS Epidemics in Ukraine”.

 

RUSSIA

 

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Training
September 12 – 15, 2006 – St.Petersburg

Training will be conducted for 30 PMTCT providers in St.Petersburg (Women’s Consultations, Maternity Houses, AIDS Center, Pediatric Policlinics, NGOs, Narcology Service) based on WHO/CDC PMTCT curriculum adapted by AIHA for Russian Federation. Three national faculty (trainers from St. Petersburg trained by AIHA at the TOT in December 2005) will conduct the course. The target audience will consist of OB/GYN specialists and pediatricians from Krasnogvardeysky district in St. Petersburg.

Tuberculosis/HIV Coinfection
September 18-22, 2006 – St. Petersburg

The first Knowledge Hub training on Tuberculosis/HIV Coinfection will be implemented at clinical sites of the Infectious Diseases Hospital No.30 “Botkina” and City TB hospital No.2 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The training course will host 30 participants including TB specialists, infectious diseases specialists, regional coordinators of TB/HIV from St. Petersburg, Orenburg, Orsk, Samara, Togliatti, Saratov and invited observers from WHO and other interested counterparts. A team of international (from the United States and Italy) and national faculty will be teaching the course. The main goal of the training is to strengthen the knowledge and clinical skills of practitioners and TB/HIV coordinators on managing HIV patients co-infected with TB, and diagnosis of TB at early stages and TB prophylaxis in HIV-infected. This course will also focus on strengthening the collaboration among relevant healthcare facilities for the benefit of PLWHA.

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): General Knowledge
End of September – beginning of October, 2006 – Chelyabinsk

This general PMTCT course will be conducted in collaboration with UNICEF and will give participants the core elements of PMTCT - both theoretical understanding and practical competence - based on WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA strategy and national standards. Topics will include ART and PMTCT, neonatal assistance to children born to HIV-positive mothers or mothers with unknown status, PMTCT for women addicted to drugs, HIV testing and counseling, stigma and discrimination issues, PMTCT program monitoring. Training will be provided by 3 local trainers and one expert from St.Petersburg.

Study tour on Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) for Russian specialists
September 27-29, 2006 - Odessa

4 OB/GYN practicing specialists from Saratov oblast and 2 OB/GYN professionals from Orenburg oblast will be traveling to Odessa for clinical training at SUAEC. The clinical training program will focus on basic components of PMTCT, proficiency in clinical procedures including c-sections, and application in practice of acquired knowledge and skills.

Training of Trainers (ToT) on Adult Antiretroviral Therapy (ART)
October 16 –20, 2006

The AIDS Training and Education Center ATEC located within the St. Petersburg Medical Academy of Postgraduate Studies (MAPS) site will host the first training on Adult ART. The format of this course would emphasize and training of trainers activity. International faculty (AIHA consultants) will provide seven-days TOT for professionals representing selected regions of the GF round 4/RHCF project in Russian Federation. Observers from the MOH and interested counterparts will also be invited. The training will prepare instructors for regional schools of undergraduate and post-graduate medical education in basic ART in HIV/AIIDS and communication and interactive teaching skills. This training course will also include planning for next regional trainings to be conducted by trained MAPS faculty together with regional instructors.

Advanced Adult Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) Training
November (dates TBD), 2006 – St.Petersburg (or Orenburg)

An advanced course in ART management for care teams (physicians, nurses, social workers) from the five partnership sites (St. Petersburg, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg) will be conducted in the field. The course will incorporate feedback from US peer professionals who have conducted adult ARV mentoring on care delivery during their AIHA/USAID sponsored partnership exchange trips in the fall/winter of 2005 and spring of 2006.

Opening of AIDS Training/Education Center
October 16, 2006 – St.Petersburg

AIHA in conjunction with the St. Petersburg Medical Academy for Post Graduate Studies, the St. Petersburg AIDS Center, and the Pediatric HIV/AIDS Clinical Center of Russian Federation (located in Ust Izhora) will officially open the AIDS Training and Education Center (ATEC) in Saint Petersburg, Russia. ATEC and its affiliated clinical sites will help develop the institutional and human resource capacity the Russian Federation needs to reach its HIV/AIDS care and treatment goals through targeted training for physicians, nurses, and social workers.

 

Knowledge Hub in Review

These events were hosted by the Knowledge Hub or affiliated centers from June 2006 to August 2006

 

TRAININGS:

 

UKRAINE

 

Advanced Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) for Adults and Opportunistic Infections (OIs) Management in Correctional Facilities
June 5-9, 2006 – Kyiv


Discussion of case study
(Photo: Grigory Naumovets)

This course was the last in the series of Knowledge Hub Adult ART trainings conducted for healthcare teams (30 participnats) from 12 correctional facilities. ART is already available at some of the correctional facilities in the southern regions, and will be launched soon in the others. Establishing future cooperation mechanisms between Regional AIDS Centers and hospitals at the correctional facilities is an essential next step. In addition to national faculty, an American physician from Albany Medical Center shared his experience on treatment provision for HIV/AIDS patients in the prison system.

Tuberculosis/HIV Coinfection
June 19-23, 2006 – Kyiv


Lecture on ‘Differential Diagnosis of HIV-associated Lung Diseases
(Photo: Grigory Naumovets)

This was the second Knowledge Hub organized training on Tuberculosis/HIV Coinfection. It involved 24 infectious disease doctors and tuberculosis (TB) specialists from Oblast TB dispensaries. The goals were to educate infectious disease doctors on early diagnosis of TB (especially extrapulmonary forms), to provide basic knowledge on TB treatment for HIV-positive patients, and to facilitate collaboration among relevant healthcare facilities for the benefit of PLWHA.

 

Antiretroviral Therapy for Injecting Drug Users on Substitution Therapy
July 3-7, 2006 – Odessa oblast


Faculty at discussion
(Photo: Lana Kulchynska)

This new Knowledge Hub training was conducted in collaboration with the OSI-International Harm Reduction Development Programme. The target audience consisted of teams made up of a narcologist, an infectious disease doctor, a social worker from the AIDS system, a social worker from narcology, and a harm reduction specialist (total 28 participants). Teams from Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, and Simferopol participated, representing the pilot regions for the substitution therapy (ST) program. Among the training topics were: treatment of HIV-positive IDUs with TB, ARV interactions with illegal drugs, case management of HIV-positive IDUs on ART.

 

Training-of-Trainers for National Faculty on Basic Adult Antiretroviral Therapy
July 17-19, 2006 – Kyiv

This course addressed clinical training methodology with the goal of equipping national faculties to conduct subsequent trainings for local infectious disease doctors. The training-of-trainers involved 7 physicians who had completed both the Knowledge Hub series on Adult ART (Initiation, Mentoring, and Advanced) and the intensive HIV/AIDS Clinical Perceptorship Programme conducted by AHF-Global Immunity. At least 4 trainees will be involved as faculty in further trainings for regional infection disease doctors.

Training courses in Ukraine were conducted within the framework of the project “Strengthen the capacity of the AIDS healthcare system in Ukraine through the provision of a comprehensive unified professional training program”, supported by International HIV/AIDS Alliance within GFATM-funded project “Övercoming HIV/AIDS Epidemics in Ukraine”.

 

 

RUSSIA

 

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): General Knowledge
June 6-9, 2006 – Chelyabinsk

This general PMTCT course was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF and sought to give participants the core elements of PMTCT - both theoretical understanding and practical competence - based on WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA strategy and national standards. Topics covered included ART and PMTCT, neonatal assistance to children born to HIV-positive mothers or mothers with unknown status, PMTCT for women addicted to drugs, HIV testing and counseling, stigma and discrimination issues, PMTCT program monitoring. 22 physicians received training conducted by a team of 3 Russian trainers and 1 Ukrainian expert.

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): General Knowledge
June 20-23, 2006 – Orenburg (Orsk)

This general PMTCT course was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF and sought to give participants the core elements of PMTCT - both theoretical understanding and practical competence - based on WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA strategy and national standards. Topics covered included ART and PMTCT, neonatal assistance to children born to HIV-positive mothers or mothers with unknown status, PMTCT for women addicted to drugs, HIV testing and counseling, stigma and discrimination issues, PMTCT program monitoring. A team of 4 Russian trainers (3 trainers from Orenburg, 1 expert from Togliatti) provided the training for 35 practitioners, nurses, and midwives from Orenburg Oblast.

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): General Knowledge
June 26-29, 2006 – Orenburg (Orsk)

This general PMTCT course was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF and sought to give participants the core elements of PMTCT - both theoretical understanding and practical competence - based on WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA strategy and national standards. Topics covered included ART and PMTCT, neonatal assistance to children born to HIV-positive mothers or mothers with unknown status, PMTCT for women addicted to drugs, HIV testing and counseling, stigma and discrimination issues, PMTCT program monitoring. A team of 4 Russian trainers (3 trainers from Orenburg, 1 expert from Togliatti) provided the training for 35 practitioners, nurses, and midwives from Orenburg Oblast.

Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT): General Knowledge
June 27-30, 2006 – Chelyabinsk

This general PMTCT course was conducted in collaboration with UNICEF and sought to give participants the core elements of PMTCT - both theoretical understanding and practical competence - based on WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA strategy and national standards. Topics covered included ART and PMTCT, neonatal assistance to children born to HIV-positive mothers or mothers with unknown status, PMTCT for women addicted to drugs, HIV testing and counseling, stigma and discrimination issues, PMTCT program monitoring. 42 physicians received training conducted by a team of 3 Russian trainers and 1 Ukrainian expert.

Advanced Pediatric Antiretroviral Therapy
July 17-21, 2006 – Ust Izhora

The training group consisted of Russian caregivers who participated in the Initiation of Pediatric ART in June 2005 and following on-site mentoring courses along with 5 participants from Belarus (supported by WHO) trained in May 2006 May in Ust Izhora. A total of 20 participants attended the training course specialists form Chelyabinsk, Togliatti, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Minsk and Svetlogorsk. A multidisciplinary team made up of three physicians, one nurse and one social worker from Pediatric HIV Clinical Center in Ust Izhora together with one international faculty, Dr. Joseph de Santis, RN, Ph.D, University of Florida, Miami, FL, USA, have facilitated the training. The course program covered advanced principles of medical and social care to PLWHA on ART, and addressed issues such as opportunistic infections, drug regimens/dosages, complications, side effects, drug adherence, and post-exposure prophylaxis. The course comprised interactive sessions and clinical cases discussions.

 

For more information on this section please visit
www.aidsknowledhehub.org > What the Knowledge Hub does > Training Courses,
or follow the link:
www.aidsknowledgehub.org/eng/mastering/trainings/browse/ .

 

CONFERENCES:

 

NIS Editorial Board Meeting
August 13, 2006 – Toronto, Canada

AIHA’s Eurasia AIDS Knowledge Network (EAKN) sponsored an NIS Editorial Board Meeting in conjunction with the VI International AIDS Confrence in Toronto. The meeting objective was to develop the introductions to the Russian versions of 2005 editions of Medical Management of HIV infection/J. Bartlett and HIV Medicine 2005 translated by EAKN with the support of USAID The purpose of the introductions are to provide a context for use of the latest HIV/AIDS care and treatment information within the resource and services related environment in the Newly Independent States (NIS). The observations and comments of the NIS Editorial Board members will ensure relevancy and the cultural competency of these books. EAKN’s NIS Editorial Board represents the leading specialists on HIV/AIDS care and treatment form Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. The Editorial Board previously participated in the development of introductions to the Russian versions of 2003 editions of the books. AIHA staff facilitated the meeting. IAPAC President/CEO Jose Zuniga participated in the meeting. The Intorductions will be finalized early this Fall to accompany Web-based translations of the texts.

VI International AIDS Conference
August 13-18, 2006 – Toronto, Canada

The Regional Knowledge Hub for the Care and Treatment of HIV /AIDS in Eurasia participated in the Toronto AIDS conference and presented a poster on the Knowledge Hub and AIHA related HIV/AIDS programs. Knowledge Hub Medical Advisor Olga Kostyuk poster presentation entitled: “Strengthening Ukraine’s Ability to Provide Antiretroviral Therapy to PLWHA: The Regional Knowledge Hub’s Strategy to Build Human Resource Capacity for Rapid Scale Up of Treatment” described the Knowledge Hub methodology, training approaches, lessons learned, and underscored that the Knowledge Hub provides training not only for Ukrainian specialists, but also for healthcare professionals from Russia and other countries throughout the region. Copy of the poster presented at the conference is available on the Knowledge Hub web site at:

www.aidsknowledgehub.org/files/KH_Ukraine_ART_Toronto_en.pdf

 

HIV/AIDS Resources

USAID logo
Primary funding for EAKN is provided by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)


Useful links to HIV/AIDS-related information and evidence-based research

The EurasiaHealth AIDS Knowledge Network (EAKN) is a special initiative to identify key resources related to the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS and adapt and translate them for use by health professionals in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The EAKN Library consists of a core set of textbooks and guidelines that have been developed by the world's leading experts on HIV/AIDS. As these materials are updated in English, EAKN updates the Russian-language versions maintained on its Web site. In addition to the core set of key documents, the EAKN Library includes a variety of HIV/AIDS information resources, including patient education materials, articles, and abstracts.

Among the most recently added or updated documents are:

The EAKN Library is continuing to translate the Textbook of Pediatric HIV Care, as well as various other publications, reviews of the latest articles from the leading peer-reviewed magazines, and recent abstracts from medical conferences.