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UKZN's Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, based in the College of health Sciences, has once again made huge strides in HIV management. Recently, the Centre's, Dr Richard Lessells and Dr Tulio de Oliveira together with the University of Pretoria's, Dr. Theresa Rossouw; launched a book entitled, 'HIV and TB: Drug Resistance and Clinical Management Case Book'.

According to de Oliveira, the aim of the book was to create awareness and understanding of the issues related to the management of HIV and TB drug resistance. 'We felt this is important given the increasingly complex case mix facing frontline health care workers in South Africa with the rapid scale-up of antiretroviral therapy and the ongoing epidemic of drug-resistant TB'.

'Among the top challenges of the HIV & TB epidemics are issues related to patient adherence to their antiretroviral and anti-TB drug regimens and the absence of reliable tools to measure adherence', remarked de Oliveira.

A workshop was also held in order to introduce the book to frontline workers based in five hospitals of the uMkhanyakude District of northern KwaZulu-Natal. In total, 52 clinicians, senior nurses and pharmacists attended from the hospitals. Also present were HIV and TB specialists from The Africa Centre, Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), King Edward VIII hospital, and Botswana.

The HIV & TB Drug Resistance Clinical Management Case Book is free for download at our website

News date: 2013-03-15

Links:

http://www.ukzn.ac.za/news//2013/03/15/transferring-critical-knowledge-and-skills-to-frontline-medical-personnel-fighting-the-hiv-tb-epidemics-in-rural-south-africa

Publication cited

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