Yale University

Yale, South African Researchers Partner To Prevent and Treat HIV and TB

Former South African president Nelson Mandela once emphasized that the war against AIDS could not be won without confronting the country’s tuberculosis epidemic. For the last 16 years, a group of Yale researchers in the Yale AIDS Program has been doing just that through their involvement in the Tugela Ferry Care and Research Collaboration (TF CARES), an international non-governmental organization committed to improving prevention, care, and treatment for adults and children with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis through clinical care, research and capacity building in Tugela Ferry, South Africa.

Currently, South Africa has the largest number of people living with HIV in the world and is also experiencing a dramatically expanded tuberculosis epidemic. These two epidemics are tightly linked, as HIV increases TB risk and disease, and TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. In 2002, the Yale AIDS Program began addressing the twin epidemics in KwaZuluNatal, the country’s most populous and heavily burdened province.

The program - led by Yale professor Dr. Gerald Friedland, professor emeritus of medicine (infectious diseases), epidemiology, and public health, and South Africa colleagues - is based on a strategy of integrated TB/HIV diagnosis, care, and treatment intended to improve the outcomes of both diseases. The strategy was first implemented in Durban, the largest city in KwaZuluNatal and the third largest in South Africa.

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Published: Friday, August 31, 2018