2012 World AIDS Day update
2012 is GAIA Vaccine Foundation’s 10th anniversary! Please stand strong with GAIA VF and donate today.
10 years ago, we first set out to establish collaborations with Malian HIV researchers. GAIA VF was subsequently established to coordinate networking among HIV/AIDS governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, and HIV care providers, as well as to tackle the problem of misinformation about HIV/AIDS treatment among clinicians and patients that could impair the ethical conduct of HIV vaccine trials in Mali.
With your help, we have been able to support the treatment of HIV seropositive women and their families at the Hope Center Clinic and at “Chez Rosalie”, our successful mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention (MTCTP) program, since 2005! We have established strong local and regional partnerships in Mali, performed vaccine readiness research, and implemented a comprehensive HIV care program in anticipation of performing HIV vaccine trials. With approval from the Malian Ministry of Health, GAIA VF has addressed the issue of access to care by setting up a model village-based HIV care and treatment clinic. The Hope Center Clinic now features HIV case management, outreach to identify new patients, referral to care, and promotion of medication adherence. GAIA VF also partners with local organizations to improve access to specialty HIV care at the clinic. Our goal is to leverage innovative HIV management techniques, expand HIV treatment, and increase HIV knowledge in order to improve access and adherence to care, a model that could be implemented to expand village-level HIV care throughout West Africa.
Coup d’Etat in Mali
Unfortunately, 2012 was also the setting for a military coup, which took place in Mali in March. While there is ongoing civil unrest in the northern part of the country, our onsite director Dr. Karamoko Tounkara reports that all is calm in Mali’s capital of Bamako. Our patients and staff are safe, as are GAIA VF’s collaborating scientists.In spite of this unrest, we are still providing access to HIV testing, care, and prevention, as well as food for HIV-infected patients, at our clinic in Sikoro. While we have had to reduce the scope of our programs to cut costs, the current political crisis has had no other impact on our activities at the Hope Center Clinic.
Although circumstances have been hard, enrollment in the MTCTP program has been steady over the past months. Voluntary HIV testing requests have skyrocketed in the past year, increasing from 226 in 2011 to 412 in 2012! This reflects not only GAIA VF’s resilience in keeping its programs open when other programs were forced to close due to the current political turmoil, but also an awareness and appreciation for the services provided by our clinic. We believe that continuing to operate our programs will instill hope in the citizens of Mali to sustain them through these difficult times. Our Malian collaborators are continuing the fight against AIDS, and we need to bolster their optimism that peace and prosperity will be restored. More than ever, GAIA VF, our staff, and our patients need our, and your, support.
HIV Care Program
Since the launch of our antiretroviral (ARV) access program in 2009, more than 200 patients have enrolled in care at the clinic. In the past 2 years, GAIA VF was able to reduce the cost to patients of HIV screening and provide supplies and material for HIV screening activities. We reinforced our staff to levels appropriate for management of persons living with HIV/AIDS and hired a full-time pharmacist (full-time) trained in the management of care for HIV-positive patients, as required by the government of Mali.
2011-2012 Hope Center Clinic Achievements
438 Voluntary HIV test requests
221 HIV-infected adults and children in care
42 HIV-infected children in care
118 New HIV-positive patients on treatment
1040 Meals distributed to our patients
MTCTP Program Evaluation
GAIA VF conducted a six-year retrospective assessment of its MTCTP program to evaluate its efficacy in preventing pediatric infections and providing services and support to HIV-positive women. Doctors and volunteers reviewed the maternity clinic’s patient charts to identify HIV-positive women enrolled in the MTCTP program for study participation. MTCTP acceptance, HIV transmission risk factors, and HIV seroprevalence among 150 babies born to mothers enrolled in the MTCTP program from 2005-2011 were evaluated by survey. The results of this evaluation were presented this year at the annual AIDS Vaccine Conference in Boston. GAIA counseled 9,379 women about HIV infection from 2005-2011 (average 145/month). An overwhelming majority (99.1%) of women agreed to HIV testing following counseling. 202 women (2.1%) were HIV positive, of whom 125 (61.9%) accepted MTCTP treatment. Notably, 100% of babies born at Chez Rosalie to MTCTP-adherent mothers were HIV free.
Hope is a Vaccine Award Dinner
Dr. Myron Cohen and Dr. Julio Montaner were awarded the 2012 International Hope is a Vaccine award for their ardent support of the “Treatment as Prevention” approach to ending AIDS, in the absence of an effective vaccine. The National Hope is a Vaccine award was given to Jon Cohen (correspondent with Science) for covering HIV/AIDS from every angle, and the Local Hope is a Vaccine award winner was Dr. Paul Loberti for his unfailingly devoted advocacy of HIV prevention as a means of addressing the HIV epidemic. Our 2012 awardees attended the World AIDS Conference in Washington DC and gathered for a friendly award dinner together with Congressman David Cicilline.
Treatment as prevention: “The new vaccine for AIDS?”
The GAIA Vaccine Foundation held a satellite session at the AIDS Vaccine Conference in Boston in September 2012. Guest speaker (and 2012 Hope is a Vaccine Award winner!) Dr. Myron Cohen discussed the potential for implementation of the “Treatment as Prevention” (TasP) approach to ending AIDS, in the absence of an effective vaccine. Dr. Zoumana Koty, our Malian HIV specialist, was the recipient of both a scholarship and a travel grant, enabling him to attend the conference and present his work on improving clinical outcomes for HIV-positive patients at the Hope Center Clinic in Mali.
December 1st is World AIDS Day! Your support for GAIA could not be more important than it is right now – we cannot continue without your help. Help us preserve our HIV care, treatment, and education programs in Mali! Please make a donation today.