The University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences, along with the greater Pitt community, remains steadfast in its long commitment to understanding and combatting the spread of HIV/AIDS. We are proud of the vast amount of work done by our physician-scientists, alumni and others and commend them for their dedication to conquering this disease.
This World AIDS Day, we’re spotlighting recent examples of initiatives within our six health sciences schools that showcase the diverse ways our community is contributing to the fight against this global health challenge.
Alumna in action
In August 2023, Pitt Magazine spotlighted Theresa Kaijage (SOC WK ’04G, SPH ’04G), who founded the WAMATA, an acronym for what translates from Swahili into “People in the Fight Against AIDS in Tanzania.” After earning a doctorate from the School of Social Work and a master’s degree from the School of Public Health, Kaijage, who grew up in Tanzania, returned to her home and worked at WAMATA, armed with new skills and fresh ideas—particularly about the need to shift conversations around disease from shame to support.
Discovering new opportunities for treatment
A team of researchers, led by husband-wife scientist pair Cristian Apetrei, professor of immunology (Division of Infectious Diseases), School of Medicine and of infectious diseases and microbiology, School of Public Health, and Ivona Vasile-Pandrea, professor of pathology, School of Medicine, serendipitously discovered a new direction for HIV treatment. Their findings, published in the journal JCI Insight in July 2023, point to a novel approach to HIV treatment by focusing on the gut, potentially opening avenues for broader applications in understanding and treating conditions like irritable bowel syndrome. Researchers hope to further investigate microbial transplants and are in the initial stages of exploring the impact of altering the gut microbiome.
Honoring long-standing initiatives
National expert on HIV prevention Ken Ho, associate professor of medicine, School of Medicine, was awarded the 2023 Kerry Stoner Award. The honor is presented annually by the Allies for Health + Wellbeing, formerly the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, to an individual for progressing the legacy of its namesake, who died of complications from AIDS in 1993. Ho is the medical director for the Pitt Men’s Study, a National Institutes of Health-funded study of the natural history of HIV/AIDS, which has run for more than 40 years.
Driving global change
Global Evaluation of Microbicide Sensitivity
The Pitt Global Evaluation of Microbicide Sensitivity project serves to provide a comprehensive assessment of HIV drug resistance risk during PrEP use and policy recommendations for the frequency of HIV testing and resistance monitoring for projects implementing PrEP in sub-Saharan Africa.
The University of Pittsburgh HIV-Comorbidities Research Training Program in South Africa
This program aims to build career opportunities for promising junior South African faculties and postdocs to prevent brain drain and increase the number and quality of the next generation of independent investigators focused on three HIV-comorbidities (cardiovascular, chronic kidney disease and neuropsychiatry) in South Africa.
The University of Pittsburgh HIV Research Training Program (HRTP)
HRTP aims to provide Universidade Católica de Moçambique investigators with the multidisciplinary tools needed to participate in clinical trials addressing HIV prevention and treatment in Mozambique.