The Latest News from VIGH

Join Nashville area partners for a week of activities to commemorate World AIDS Day 2012. Daily activities are scheduled from Wednesday, November 28th through December 2, 2012.

October 2012 Publications Philip Ciampa, M.D., M.P.H., Sten Vermund, M.D., Ph.D., Carolyn Audet, Ph.D. “Comprehensive Knowledge of HIV among Women in Rural Mozambique: Development and Validation of the HIV Knowledge 27 Scale.” in PLOS One.

Anyone interested in remembering those who have passed on, those who are living with, and those who are at risk for HIV are invited to join others in observance of World AIDS Day 2012 - Nashville.

Researchers at the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) recently received a two-year, $895,072 grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study whether an integrated, family-focused approach can prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV—the AIDS virus—in Nigeria.

La Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (UPCH), named after Cayetano Heredia, one of the most eminent Peruvian physicians of the 19th Century, is located in Lima Peru. The UPCH is offering a four-week course in tropical medicine geared toward third and fourth-year medical students.

A team of Vanderbilt researchers recently received a $281,490 award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fund a project studying stroke prevention among children with sickle cell disease in Nigeria.

Vanderbilt University has recently received a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for more than $7 million to extend HIV/AIDS training, treatment and care in the rural province of Zambézia in Mozambique. The grant, entitled "Avante Zambézia," Portuguese for "Move Forward Zambézia,"  will continue HIV/AIDS efforts from 2007 initiated with funding from a prior CDC grant. The President's Emergency Plan for AID Relief (PEPFAR) funded both grants.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) recently hosted its 2012 National Consultation conference in Washington, D.C. The conference attracted a record number of refugee service providers, partner agencies, honored guests and attendees who shared best practices and personal stories centered on this year's theme: Transforming Hope into a Brighter Future.

Dr. Sten Vermund, VIGH Director, began involvement in Zambia after attending a research needs assessment conference in 1998. Dr. Vermund co-chaired the HIV Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission Working Group with Dr. Chewe Luo and in 2000 he co-founded the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) located in Lusaka.

Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies Director Ted Fischer developed a project called Mani+ in 2008 to combat chronic malnutrition in Guatemalan children. Several teams of Project Pyramid students from Vanderbilt's Owen Graduate School of Management, led by Bart Victor, recently helped develop a business plan for the project. Sarah Roper, Hudson Baird, Thomas Davis, Jillian Currie and Robert Tauscher were among an interdisciplinary group of Vanderbilt students who contributed to the business and implementation plans.

Members of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health (VIGH) Student Advisory Council gathered August 28 for a fall retreat. Undergraduate and graduate students from across the university met to update each other on developments at the Institute and set goals for the upcoming academic year.

Brian Heiniger, a second-year student at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, recently returned from a two-month stay in Lusaka, Zambia where he conducted research at the University of Zambia (UNZA) teaching hospital.

Developmental Disabilities Grand Rounds on 11/7/12 “Developing Child Mental Health Capacity in the Developing World, in General and for ASD” Presented by: Bahr Weiss, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology & Human Development 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Milton and Fred Ochieng' have been selected to receive the Peace Corps' 2012 annual Director's Award at the Franklin H. Williams Award ceremony in Washington, D.C. on September 20. The Ochieng' brothers are Vanderbilt University School of Medicine graduates and founders of the non-profit Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya, Africa. The Director's Award recognizes the brothers for their work with the Lwala Community Alliance.

Doug Heimburger, M.D., M.S.