UAB Doctors Mobilize for Zambia AIDS Project

Backed by $20 million in new federal grants, University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) doctors are focused on developing an HIV treatment program in Zambia and improving the country's public health system. "This is a massive effort," said Dr. Jeffrey S.A. Stringer, a UAB obstetrician. Stringer and his wife Elizabeth, also an obstetrician, have been working for UAB at the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia since 2001; they will now spearhead the HIV treatment program.

UAB's effort in Zambia was prompted by the Bush administration's $15 billion, five-year global AIDS initiative. The goal of the treatment program is to put at least 1,000 Zambians on antiretroviral therapy within two months and 10,000 within five years. "We're under a tremendous amount of pressure under this initiative to get people on therapy," Stringer told the Birmingham News. "It's very high profile. They want it to work. And they want early results, too."

New grants totaling $20 million were recently awarded to UAB's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in collaboration with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. That money will be used over five years to improve the Zambian government's public health system -- a critical step before reliable treatment can even be provided for much of the country's population. Stringer added that some open-ended funding also has been committed for buying drugs.

Doctors from the UAB Center for AIDS Research, School of Public Health and School of Medicine have been mobilized for the Zambian effort, said Stringer. He noted that the 1917 Clinic at UAB, a well-known AIDS treatment facility in Birmingham, is the model for the Zambian clinics. The Stringers hope to train 20 to 30 people to staff eight clinics, including three in hospitals.

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