2019 Archive - UM School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology Awarded $40 Million Grant to Conduct HIV Population Surveys | University of Maryland School of Medicine

June 24, 2019

Dr. Man Charurat Completed One of the Largest Population Based HIV/AIDS Survey

Man Charurat, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity (CIHEB), and Director, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has been awarded a five-year grant from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to conduct HIV population-based HIV impact assessments worldwide to measure the progress towards the control of the HIV epidemic.

The University will receive $40 million in the first year. Dr. Charurat is completing the 20-month Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), one of the largest population-based HIV/AIDS household surveys ever conducted. The preliminary result of NAIIS was released by the Government of Nigeria and U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) earlier this year.

“This grant allows us to build on our expertise in technical assistance for improving service delivery for HIV/TB prevention, care, treatment, and for associated infectious and non-communicable diseases, and provides more in-depth insights into the HIV epidemics globally,” said Dr. Charurat.

With this new award for a project titled “Regional Strengthening of HIV-focused Population-based National Surveys and Size Estimations (RESPONSE),” the Center will focus survey implementations in several priority countries heavily affected by HIV. The survey combines household visits with key questions and cutting-edge technologies to directly measure national HIV incidence, HIV viral load suppression, and other selected infectious diseases such as HBV, HCV, TB, and syphilis. Under the leadership of each country’s Ministry of Health, survey teams travel door to door to collect risk behavioral data along with biomarkers. Survey results from each country will become available as they are completed over the next five years.

“Dr. Charurat’s important leadership and research in this area will help set the stage to better understand how to intervene and bring an end to HIV prevalence. This is particularly important for the most vulnerable populations. His research team has already conducted significant research and surveillance in Nigeria, which will help form evidence-based HIV intervention policy,” said UMSOM Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, who is University Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor.

The University leads a consortium comprising of ICF International, the Population Council, the African Field Epidemiology Network, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, and the African Center for Disease Control. In collaboration with the CDC Division of Global HIV and TB, the consortium plays a key role in designing and implementing the PHIA surveys which includes lending expertise in epidemiology, laboratory science, health informatics, survey statistics, and workforce training.

About the Institute of Human Virology

Formed in 1996 as a partnership between the State of Maryland, the City of Baltimore, the University System of Maryland and the University of Maryland Medical System, IHV is an institute of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and is home to some of the most globally-recognized and world-renowned experts in all of virology. The IHV combines the disciplines of basic research, epidemiology and clinical research in a concerted effort to speed the discovery of diagnostics and therapeutics for a wide variety of chronic and deadly viral and immune disorders - most notably, HIV the virus that causes AIDS. For more information, www.ihv.org.

About the Center for International Health, Education and Biosecurity

The Center for International Health, Education, and Biosecurity, founded in 2016, is an international research center created within the University of Maryland School of Medicine by the Institute of Human Virology. CIHEB’s mission is to improve population health, safeguarding communities against health-related threats, and promotes health equity worldwide. CIHEB currently implements 16 programs in six countries with annual funding portfolio of $90M. For more information, www.ciheb.ihv.org and follow us on Twitter @CIHEB_UMB

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 43 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs; and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished recipient of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically based care for more than 1.2 million patients each year. The School has over 2,500 students, residents, and fellows, and more than $530 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total workforce of nearly 7,000 individuals. The combined School and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of nearly $6 billion and an economic impact more than $15 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine faculty, which ranks as the 8^th highest among public medical schools in research productivity, is an innovator in translational medicine, with 600 active patents and 24 start-up companies. The School works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu

Contact

Institute of Human Virology
Jennifer Gonzales
Public Relations & Communications Manager
jennifer.gonzales@ihv.umaryland.edu

With his 92-year-old mother watching via live stream from the city of Qingdao, China, and an in-person audience of friends and colleagues gathered in Westminster Hall, Lishan Su, PhD, an internationally prominent virologist and immunologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology (IHV), was invested as the Charles Gordon Smith Endowed Professor for HIV Research. Dr. Su is a Professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Microbiology & Immunology at UMSOM’s IHV, who also serves as the Director of the Division of Virology, Pathogenesis, and Cancer at the Institute.

Monday, October 31, 2022

NCI Grants Awarded to IHV to Prevent Cancer and Improve Screening in Sub-Saharan Africa

Institute of Human Virology (IHV) researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have received two five-year awards from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) for a total of $7.5 million. One award aims to reduce the incidence of lung cancer and other cancers associated with using tobacco in Botswana. The other is focusing on improving screening and treatment of anal precancer in Nigeria. Both grants will make use of existing HIV treatment and prevention infrastructure in low- and middle-income countries to reach people living with HIV who are most at risk for these particular types of cancers.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Six-Country African Study Shows COVID-19 Can Be Dangerous in Pregnancy

A new study involving hospitalized women in six African countries from the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute of Human Virology (IHV) showed that pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had double the risk of being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and four-times the risk of dying in-hospital than pregnant women who did not have COVID-19.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

New Research Shows Mothers’ HIV Status, Breastfeeding, and the Infant Gut Microbiome Can Have Long-Term Impact on Infant Health

Babies born to women with HIV often have poorer health and under-developed growth in the early months of life than infants born to women without the infection — even if those babies don’t contract HIV during birth, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)’s Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) and Institute of Human Virology (IHV). The study also provides new insights into why these health issues often continue throughout the babies’ lives.

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

NIH Awards Grant to Train Global Health Scientists in Low-and-Middle-Income Countries

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) received a $5.5 million award from the National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Center to help foster the next generation of global health scientists. The award entitled, “Integrated Network of Scholars in Global Health Research Training (INSIGHT)” will expand global health research across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean by providing one-year mentored research training to U.S. and lower-middle income country scholars.

Friday, May 20, 2022

NIH Grant Awarded to Study HIV Drug-Resistant Genetic Mutations Across Africa

University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV) researchers received funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for $2.7 million to study genetic changes in two genes from the HIV-1 virus that may make it resistant to antiretroviral therapy. The study, named INSPIRE, will analyze genetic variation in types of HIV circulating in a handful of African countries that will help to better understand the implications of these mutations and will improve clinical management of patients.

Thursday, November 04, 2021

University of Maryland School of Medicine Institute of Human Virology Researchers Receive $6.5M to Create African Big Data Hub Designed to Address Public Health and Pandemic Preparedness

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM)’s Institute of Human Virology (IHV), a Global Virus Network (GVN) Center of Excellence, have received $6.5 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to streamline big data collection in Nigeria and South Africa in addressing public health needs of the COVID-19 and HIV pandemics.

Tuesday, July 06, 2021

UM School of Medicine Researchers Receive NIH Avant-Garde Award for Out-Of-Box Concept to Cure HIV and Treat Co-Existing Addiction

Linda Chang, MD, MS, Professor of Diagnostic Radiology & Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), received the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) 2021 Avant-Garde Award (DP1) for HIV/AIDS and Substance Use Disorder Research — a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award. This prestigious award supports researchers with exceptional creativity, who propose high-impact research with the potential to be transformative to the field.

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

UMSOM Researcher Elected as Fellow to American Academy of Microbiology

Richard Y. Zhao, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Associate Member of the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), has been elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM). AAM is an honorific leadership group within the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).

Tuesday, December 04, 2018

Institute of Human Virology Researchers Discover That a Bacterial Protein Promotes Cancer

The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) announced today the discovery that DnaK, a protein of the bacterium mycoplasma, interferes with the mycoplasma-infected cell’s ability to respond to and repair DNA damage, a known origin of cancer.

Wednesday, August 02, 2017

UM School of Medicine Receives $2 Million Grant for HIV Research in Malawi

The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UM SOM) Institute for Global Health (IGH) and the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) have been awarded a $2 million five-year grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the impact exposure to HIV has on the immune systems of infants in utero and how those changes impact the ability of infants to fight off infections after birth.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

IHV Awarded $138M to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa & Launches Center for International Health, Education, & Biosecurity

The Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine announced today more than $138 million in multiple five-year grants awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to combat HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Nigeria. The Institute concurrently announced the formation of the IHV Center for International Health, Education, & Biosecurity (CIHEB), and its newly appointed director, Deus Bazira Mubangizi, DrPH, MBA, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Director, Center for Health, Education, & Biosecurity, Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

"A Call to End HIV/AIDS in America" IHV Director Dr. Robert Gallo's Op-Ed in the Huffington Post

As the new Administration is presented with great challenges facing the United States, one will be a longtime foe, the U.S. HIV/AIDS epidemic. Since President Barack Obama was elected in 2008, I have publicly called on our country’s leaders to utilize the largest global health initiative in history - the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - as a model to address the U.S. epidemic.

UM School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology Awarded $40 Million Grant to Conduct HIV Population Surveys