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Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group

Beginning with a mobile HIV testing site outside the Centre Hospitalier Kigali (CHK), in Kigali, Rwanda in 1986, the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group has developed the longest-standing and largest heterosexual HIV-discordant couples’ cohort in the world at Projet San Francisco (PSF). The project’s second main research site, the Zambia-Emory HIV Research Project in Lusaka, Zambia, maintains the next largest cohort.

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Latest News!

NEW!! RWANDA: DEATH, DESPAIR AND DEFIANCE NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE ONLINE

Posted 13 April 2009

Rwanda: Death, Despair and Defiance is a book issued by the African Rights Organization that captures the horrific accounts from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and examines the failure of the international community to respond effectively to the murder and genocide.

 

 

All proceeds from the sale of this book go towards the Genocide Prevention and Justice Foundation (http://www.rzhrg.org/genocide.html).

 

 

Human Rights Violators Hiding in the US:

Recent Case Histories from Rwanda

Posted 20 February 2008

presented by:

The Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University School of Law, and the Center for Health, Culture, and Society.

 

Rick Butler, Criminal Research Officer

Human Rights Violator Unit

U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security

Immigration and Customs Enforcement

 

Monday, February 25, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Rollins School of Public Health, Room 860

1518 Clifton Rd. NE

 

Pizza will be served.  Seating is limited.

 

Click here for information about Rick Butler.

 

Couples Voluntary Counseling and Testing Curriculum a Big Hit

Posted December 11, 2007

Dr. Susan Allen  Director of the CFAR International Studies Research Domain, has just received word that a manual her team developed -- The Couples HIV Counseling and Testing (CHCT) Intervention and Training Curriculum has been cleared by the CDC and is being sent out for international dissemination.

The curriculum was developed in response to Dr. Allen's research in
Rwanda and Zambia showing that the uninfected half of sero-discordant
couples are significantly more likely to remain uninfected if the couple
receives HIV counseling, testing and serostatus disclosure at the same
time, in each others' presence. This observation created an immediate
need to equip community field sites around the world with tools for
implementing couples voluntary counseling and testing (CVCT)
interventions -- this curriculum is the result.

As "HIV testing and counseling" is the CDC theme for 2007 World AIDS
Day, the curriculum is the subject of a "Special Highlight" on the Global AIDS
Program website, a feature on the cdc.gov website, and the subject of an article on the "CDC Intranet" for CDC staff.

The curriculum is the product of a joint effort of the CDC, NIMH,
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and the Rwanda Zambia HIV
Research Group (RZHRG).

 

Follow up on Panel Discussion of Post-Genocidal Rwanda Held on November 27, 2007 at Emory University

Posted December 3, 2007 Updated January 2008

At the "Beyond Hollywood's  Rwanda" event, we heard about the Genocide Accountability Act of 2007, which amends the federal criminal code allow the prosecution of acts constituting genocide committed by an alleged offender who is:

(1) an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States; (2) a stateless person whose habitual residence is in the United States; or  (3) brought into, or found in, the United States, even if the offense  occurred outside the United States.

The subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a 'Hearing on Genocide and the Rule of Law' October 23 2007. The hearing can be viewed online using Real Player.

The Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 was passed by unanimous consent by the US Senate on 29 March 2007 as bill S. 888, and was introduced to the US House of Representatives as H.R. 2489 on 24 March 2007. This bill must be passed by the House before being signed by the President. Debate and voting in the House has not yet been scheduled, so there is still time to contact your Representative regarding your support of this bill. You can identify and contact your Representative via email, using the website http://www.house.gov/writerep/ The status of the Act can be tracked HERE  and HERE.

On December 21, 2007 President Bush signed The Genocide Accountability Act of 2007 into Public Law Public Law No: 110-151. 

Rwanda Panel Discussion in the News:

Rwanda offers grim lessons to understanding threat of genocide

Emory University Press Release

All Africa: African News and Information for a Global Audience 

International AIDS Society Conference, Toronto
Posted July 11, 2006
Nine RZHRG abstracts were accepted to the IAS Conference to be held in Toronto August 13-18. Click here for full text copies of the abstracts.

AIDS Vaccine 2006, Amsterdam
Posted May 17, 2006
Eleven RZHRG abstracts were accepted to the AIDS Vaccine 2006 Conference, to be held in Amsterdam August 29th to September 1st. Click here for full text copies of the abstracts.

First HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trial in Zambia conducted by ZEHRP and Emory University

Posted May 8, 2006
April 25th 2006 marks the first HIV/AIDS vaccination in Zambian history. The trial is being conducted by the Zambia Emory HIV Research Group in Lusaka and is sponsored by the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The trial is also being conducted in South Africa and Uganda. Click here for the official press release.

First HIV/AIDS Vaccine Trial in Rwanda conducted by PSF and Emory University

Posted January 25, 2006
On November 21, 2005, Emory University's Project San Francisco administered the first HIV/AIDS vaccination in Rwandan history as part of a vaccine trial conducted in partnership with the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) and the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH).  To read more about this trial on the IAVI website, please click here.

Dr. Susan Allen, founder of RZHRG, began her work in HIV in 1986 when she accepted a research grant to study the seroprevalence of HIV in pregnant women in Kigali. Testing nearly 4,000 women visiting the antenatal care clinic at the CHK in the first year, an inaugural cohort of 1,458 HIV positive and negative women was developed to study risk reduction and the natural history of HIV. In 1988, the women participating in the project expressed a desire to have their partners tested. Upon testing, results revealed that 14% of the women were in an HIV discordant relationship (one partner tests positive and the other negative). Prior to these results, HIV researchers and healthcare workers believed that couples would either be mutually HIV negative or HIV positive.

In light of these findings, RZHRG recognized that for couples to successfully protect themselves from HIV infection, both partners needed to know each other’s status. RZHRG also identified the importance of implementing risk reduction interventions that are specifically tailored to the status of each individual couple (either both HIV negative, both HIV positive, or HIV discordant.) This is the foundation of the couples’ voluntary counseling and testing (CVCT) technique that RZHRG has pioneered.

In 1994, RZHRG opened its second site, the Zambia-Emory HIV Research Project (ZEHRP), in Lusaka using PSF as a model. Like PSF, ZEHRP promotes CVCT as a method of HIV prevention and as an entry-point into HIV clinical care, including prevention of mother-to-child transmission and anti-retroviral therapy programs. Again following the Kigali model, ZEHRP has three satellite clinics in the surrounding districts of the capital city, one mobile clinic, and a main site.

In 2004, a third CVCT research site was opened in the northern Copperbelt region of Zambia. Although smaller than its two sister sites, Ubumi Bwesu-ZEHRP is an integral part of RZHRG’s research. Together with our home office at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, these three dynamic field research facilities form the Rwanda Zambia HIV Research Group.

While couples represent the largest risk group in Africa (60% of new HIV infections are acquired from a spouse), less than one percent of cohabiting couples have been tested together. In order to address this public health crisis, RZHRG’s three research sites provide free HIV couples’ counseling and testing and HIV/AIDS education. In addition, each site offers free reproductive health planning and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases for couples eligible to participate in on-going studies. After participating in the project’s CVCT intervention, the transmission rate of HIV within couples is reduced to 7-8% per year, compared with 20-25% per year in discordant couples who have not been counseled.

The home office of RZHRG is located at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. There, a small staff of administrative, financial and data specialists support the project’s research, as do the collaborative efforts of the extensive Emory faculty.

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