A team of NIH researchers is evaluating the best practices for diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
+ Technology/Innovation
Amanda Rupp | Jul 6, 2016

Researchers evaluate best practices for diseases in sub-Saharan Africa

A team of researchers and program managers has received support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to determine the best practices that will help decrease the heavy burden diseases place on sub-Saharan Africa.

This research is part of an emerging field called implementation science. If successful, the study will decrease the yearly cases of mother-to-child HIV transmissions, which currently amount to 150,000. Most of these cases are found in developing nations.

“We have the tools at this moment to further decrease incidence of new infections, but we need to apply these tools more effectively to reach the undiagnosed and untreated mothers,” Fogarty Director Dr. Roger Glass and U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said in the article.

The results of the study are available in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The open-access article, which is 16 pages long, will help scientists apply their findings and other evidence in their services and care on a routine basis.

The scientists concluded that the research is useless without collaboration and implementation in these developing countries.

“Continuing to find innovative ways to foster collaboration of implementation science researchers with decision makers and program implementers will be critical to speed the translation of effective PMTCT (preventing mother-to-child HIV transmissions) interventions in the local context and health system programs,” Glass and Birx said.

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