Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #114982

Eric L. Krakauer, MD, PhD¹, Loc Q. Tran, MS¹, Megan E. O'Brien, MPH, PhD², Yen N. Le, MD, PhD³, Hien D. Nguyen, MD, PhD⁴, Marcio Maeda, MS, MPH¹, Mitchell I. Wolfe, MD, MPH³, and Lisa Cosimi, MD¹. (1) Vietnam-CDC-Harvard Medical School AIDS Partnership, 641 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, 617-432-5144, eric_krakauer@hms.harvard.edu, (2) Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, (3) CDC Global AIDS Program - Vietnam, 7 Lang Ha, Hanoi, Vietnam, (4) National Institute for Clinical Research in Tropical Medicine, Bach Mai Hospital, Giai Phong Street, Hanoi, Vietnam

Issues: Vietnam's clinicians lack adequate training to provide optimum HIV care and antiretroviral therapy. Since Vietnam's HIV prevalence is rising and antiretroviral drugs are becoming available, the need for training is urgent. Description: We provide capacity-building training in HIV treatment for physicians and nurses throughout Vietnam. In 2003 and 2004, we held four national training conferences where intensive, interactive, locally relevant training was provided for 280 of Vietnam's leading HIV physicians and clinical educators. The training was designed to prepare participants to both provide and teach comprehensive HIV/AIDS care and included daily case-based small group discussions and hospital rounds. HIV-related knowledge and attitudes of participants was measured before each training, immediately afterwards, and one-to-two years later. Lessons Learned: Participants at our national training conferences are responsible for direct care of a large fraction of the nation's HIV/AIDS patients. Before the conferences, trainees' knowledge of the clinical course of HIV disease, management of common opportunistic infections, HIV-related diagnostic tests, and ARV therapy was limited. After the conferences, participants showed improvement in most knowledge areas. Data indicate that this improvement was maintained over time. Participants took part actively in small group discussions despite an educational culture that does not encourage interactive learning. Recommendations: Intensive, locally relevant training for clinicians can build enduring local capacity for HIV/AIDS care. Careful selection of participants and a train-the-trainers approach can lead to wide dissemination and application of clinical knowledge. The number of clinicians trained by participants and the quality of this training also warrants evaluation.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, the participant will be able to

• Describe basic features of a training program in HIV treatment in a developing country.
• Describe methods to evaluate the effectiveness and durability of training in HIV treatment in a developing country.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, International Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.