Zambia

Zambia is a small nation of approximately 11 million persons in southern Africa.  WHO/Zambia reports that over two-thirds of the population is living under the national poverty line, and the country ranks 90th out of 103 on the UNDP Human Poverty Index scale.  Zambia carries a high burden of infectious diseases, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, and the Central Statistical Office of Zambia approximates 20% of the Zambian people have HIV infection.  The UNAIDS reports that the projected life expectancy has reduced from 60 years at birth (without HIV/AIDS) to 37 years due to the disease.

Zambia is one of the US President's Emergency Plan Emergence Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) 15 focus countries. (read 2007 Zambia report) However, recent efforts to provide life saving HIV medications to infected persons has been complicated by a lack adequately trained health care providers who are available to deliver these complex  medications safely and effectively.  This lack of trained health care providers is known as brain drain.

CCGHE is developing partnerships with JHPIEGO and the University of Zambia School of Medicine and the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka to improve continuing HIV clinical education. We are especially interested in updating HIV knowledge to physicians who practice in remote areas.  The goals of our clinical training efforts in Zambia are twofold; to improve local HIV clinical expertise and to prevent health care worker migration by keeping physicians interested in providing HIV care in Zambia.

CCGHE Launches an Online Clinical Training Course in January 2008.

The need for in-depth clinical training about HIV care and treatment in Zambia is widely recognized.  The CCGHE and JHPIEGO, a Johns Hopkins affiliate with a country office in Lusaka, Zambia have worked together to bring a new online course, Management of Adult HIV in Zambia. The course contains 22 lectures by experts at Johns Hopkins, JHPIEGO, University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka and Ministry of Health. Topics include Epidemiology and Infection Prevention, Diagnosing and Initial Management, Clinical Manifestations of HIV Infection, and Antiretroviral Therapy. Support for this course was provided in part by Northwater Foundation.

More than 120 physicians, nurses, pharmacists, program managers, and researchers have signed up to take the course, which runs from January 16 – February 20, 2008. Course participants will receive CD-ROMS of the lectures, and take pre and post-tests online toward a Certificate of Achievement to those who score 70% or better on the post-tests. Others are welcome to log into the course as a guest at www.ccghe.org from January 16 – February 20.