Newswise — Increases in HIV infection rates often follow in the wake of civil strife, and Haiti is no exception, says infectious disease expert Ruth Berggren. Berggren has been working with the community-based group Management and Resources for Community Health (MARCH) Foundation in Haiti to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their newborns.
The World AIDS Foundation has awarded a $142,000 grant to the partnership for a project that will study the feasibility of giving HIV-positive mothers greater access to health care and HIV medication to prevent passing the virus to their babies during birth. Tulane infectious disease specialist Ruth Berggren is co-investigator on the two-year project.
According to Berggren, clinical coordinator for the program, many mothers in rural Haiti give birth at home without any medical services. The team will look at developing services to help these women, as well as developing a support system to ensure that when treatment is given to people living with AIDS, they are seen taking it.
Haitian physician Antoine Augustin is principal investigator and co- investigators include tropical medicine researcher Holly Murphy. Augustin also directs MARCH, a private foundation that uses mobile health clinics to deliver health care to 175,000 people in the villages surrounding Mirebalais, Haiti.
The World AIDS Foundation was established jointly by the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services and the Institut Pasteur of France.
RSS