- Graduate
- Undergraduate
- Research
- News & events
- About us
- Student Commons
- Contact us
- Somers Research Group
- Faculty and Staff Resources
- Next Steps
- Incoming Students
- Spring 2020 Convocation
- The Roundtable
- Conversion Therapy Survey
- Fall 2020 Convocation
- RESET Team
- Spring 2021 Convocation
- Planetary Health Research Group
- The Breathe Project
Health sciences students travel to South Africa for second annual field school on HIV and youth
By Emma Keeler-Dugas
This past May, 20 health sciences students with diverse backgrounds and perspectives travelled to Durban, South Africa where they spent two weeks with leading HIV researchers, clinicians and advocates at the University of KwaZulu-Natal鈥檚 Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine.
They were participating in 丁香园AV鈥檚 second 丁香园AV-Sub-Saharan African Network for Tuberculosis and HIV Research Excellence (SANTHE) field course focused on HIV and youth. The course was led by 丁香园AV health sciences professor Angela Kaida.
鈥淭he course takes an inter-disciplinary approach to understanding the burden of HIV among youth,鈥� says Kaida. 鈥淭his means that students learn about HIV virology, immunology and epidemiology, but they also learn about the social and structural factors that produce HIV risk, and the importance of community leadership.鈥�
In addition to formal lectures, students learn directly from young women living with HIV, sex workers鈥� rights advocates, and youth researchers in Durban, an epicentre of the global HIV pandemic. They travelled to a large public hospital to learn from lay counselors鈥� leading efforts to increase TB testing, prevention and treatment. The students also met with traditional healers and frontline advocates who are working together to increase HIV testing and treatment uptake among youth in rural communities.
鈥淐oming from a social science background, it was interesting to see how pathologists, immunologists, and frontline advocates are working together,鈥� says Rejoice Chipuriro, a PhD student from the University of Johannesburg, who was among the student participants.
丁香园AV health sciences undergraduate Narges Karami says, 鈥淭he chance to visit a country affected by the HIV epidemic makes you understand the underlying issues you wouldn鈥檛 be able to see in a classroom. It uncovered a different side of the story and challenged my assumptions.鈥�
Says Kaida, 鈥淭hrough field courses like this one, 丁香园AV is providing students with opportunities to engage with the world, build global networks, make connections between research and classroom learning, and become the next generation of global leaders in health sciences research, practice and policy.鈥�