Coherence and synthesis will strengthen research on HIV/AIDS

A comprehensive scan of research activities conducted at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on and around the HIV/AIDS pandemic would ensure cohesion and opportunities for synthesis in research, said Professor Jerry Coovadia, addressing an HIV/AIDS Research Summit held on the Durban campus last week. "This would strengthen our efforts and increase momentum in combating the disease syndrome in our province and further afield."

Over 40 academics working in the field of HIV/AIDS research at the University gathered at the Summit at the request of Professor Slim Abdool Karim, NU's Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Professor Coovadia, who holds the Victor Daitz Chair of HIV/AIDS Research at the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.

"There are over 160 HIV/AIDS-related research projects currently being undertaken at the University," said Professor Abdool Karim, "but many individuals involved in these projects are not fully informed about each other's work, and this is a weakness." The projects span a broad range of cross-cutting topics and disciplines, including public health, epidemiology, treatment modalities, nursing and home-based care, media studies, law and ethics, economics and cost planning. The aim of the Summit was not to control or inhibit individual researchers, he assured, but to exploit the many benefits inherent in collaborative approaches to HIV/AIDS research.

During the last two months, he reported, the University had secured several large research grants totalling millions of Rand for HIV/AIDS work, at least four of which each made over R50 million available for targeted study in this field. "With this scale of resources at our disposal," he said, "it is imperative that we engage with one another and maximise opportunities for synergy wherever possible, so that duplication of effort can be avoided and infrastructural capacity can be deployed efficiently."

Professor Abdool Karim described one such initiative in the pipeline, an HIV/AIDS "clearing house" to be supported by over R1,2 million in funding from the AIDS 2000 Conference, as being an invaluable resource to researchers seeking published findings on the epidemic. "This concept involves the collection of data in electronic format from journals, reports, conference papers and the like, under the direction of a senior subject librarian, providing rapid access for current and future researchers to the vast body of quality HIV/AIDS work."

Reporting on a similar exercise in harnessing resources for synergy initiated by the University two years ago in the area of forestry research, he explained that such collaboration had proved to be very successful, particularly in ensuring that grant applications to funders were not duplicated, that gaps in research were addressed and that valuable research partnerships could be formed. He also urged researchers to make use of the University Research Office?’s subscription to the "Community of Science Alert", a database search facility enabling researchers to identify appropriate sources of funding for their work.

Turning to the need for training and mentoring in HIV/AIDS research, Professor Coovadia noted with concern that the paucity of human resources in this area was a critical barrier to progress. "There are many causal factors underlying this situation," he said, "including a lack of clinical services, social problems, emigration and the like." Professor Abdool Karim also pointed out that the epidemic was highly stressful as a subject for practitioners of all kinds in the field, and that there was a need for these individuals to replenish their personal energies in order to ensure continuity of commitment to their work. "We need to encourage more students to pursue postgraduate research, thereby augmenting existing human capacity and growing new generations of expertise to support the struggle against HIV/AIDS," he said.

The University had updated its HIV/AIDS strategic plan to include a number of networking mechanisms in the form of research fora, and was streamlining its internal and external communications about campus-based HIV/AIDS activities. All the University's schools, departments and units were being encouraged to draw up and maintain listings of their HIV/AIDS-related projects and investigators for storage and dissemination via the newly-launched HIVAN website and database, a highly searchable electronic hub of information run by the Centre for HIV/AIDS Networking, a privately funded facility based on the Durban campus. Access to this database, as well as to the website's ongoing coverage of Inter-departmental Public Health HIV/AIDS Journal Club and Research Showcase sessions, would significantly enhance the process of sharing information, experiences and ideas on HIV/AIDS research within and beyond the University community.

Dr Devi Rajab, the University's Dean of Student Services, emphasised the need for research on the effects of the epidemic on the student body, specifically about issues relating to stigma, voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) and access to treatment. Mrs Smita Maharaj, of the University's Communication Office at the Medical School, noted that the development of a more focused and sustained media strategy around HIV/AIDS-related activities on campus, making information for students, staff and wider society more readily available, was under way.

The Summit concluded with a resolution to carry the process forward by appointing a full-time HIV/AIDS Research Co-ordinator, who would, in consultation with members of an existing and expanded HIV/AIDS Strategy Development Committee, devise plans for structuring a united research response to the epidemic. This would involve identifying all relevant stakeholders, addressing problems of capacity thematically, securing local and international expertise to inform new methodologies of prevention and treatment, and ensuring extensive, ongoing consolidation of HIV/AIDS knowledge.

In thanking those present for their participation in the Summit, Professor Coovadia mused: "This is the course that a University located in the 'white heat' of the HIV/AIDS epidemic must take; given the considerable resources at our disposal and the dedication of the roleplayers involved, it is certainly achievable," he said.