New York University College of Nursing (NYUCN) received a four-year, $ 2.8M grant from the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) to study "Combination HIV Prevention for Kenyan Youth." The grant is a collaboration between NYUCN, the University of Nairobi, and Impact-RDO, a nongovernmental organization in western Kenya. Principal Investigator Ann Kurth notes that HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa is highest of any global region and many infections occur among youth ages 15-24 years.
"Comprehensive HIV prevention in high-burden sub-Saharan African settings must address both HIV and pregnancy among young females, and HIV prevention strategies among males, using evidence-based approaches in combination," said NYUCN Professor Ann Kurth, PhD, CNM, RN. "Settings such as Nyanza Province, western Kenya where there is high HIV prevalence, high fertility rates, early onset of sex, frequent intergenerational sex and low circumcision prevalence are a high priority for developing and evaluating multi-component HIV prevention with a focus on young men and women in order to have a large population impact," she said. "In our qualitative work with the community, addressing HIV prevention for youth is something that the adults stress is of highest priority."
The grant's co-PI is Dr. Irene Inwani, pediatrician at the University of Nairobi.
Kurth's team of biobehavioral and clinical scientists, mathematical modelers, and trial design specialists will look to accomplish the following goals of the grant:
"We will disseminate these research protocol recommendations, and study instruments including the mathematical modeling tool, as a combination prevention intervention research toolkit that others can freely use," said Kurth. "The MP3-Youth study will provide critical information for design and evaluation of combination HIV prevention intervention packages that are sensitive to gender-specific risks among this most-at-risk population in high-HIV burden African settings," she said.
About the New York University College of Nursing
NYU College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice. It offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing; Master of Arts and Post-Master's Certificate Programs; a Doctor of Philosophy in Research Theory and Development, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree. For more information, visit www.nyu.edu/nursing .