A $2 million grant is supporting a multidisciplinary collaboration with Université d’ Etat d ’Haiti researching ways to mitigate the disease among Haitian adolescents.

With HIV/AIDS as its target, a five-year project between USF and the Université d’ Etat d ’Haiti (UEH) has gotten off to an auspicious start between an orientation meeting during spring break in March and a two-week summer institute taking place on campus this month.

An interdisciplinary team of scholars from USF is working with faculty from UEH’s Department of Ethnology on a project they have named S.H.A.R.E. Haiti for Syndemics HIV/AIDS Research Education in the Caribbean nation. Together they are building a program of funded research that supports ongoing and sustainable HIV/AIDS research in the country to mitigate the impact of HIV among Haitian adolescents.

“Syndemics is all about two or more diseases in a population and how they interact with the social and cultural conditions that exacerbate them,” said Dr. Guitele Rahill, assistant professor in the School of Social Work and a co-PI for the $2.04 million grant that is supporting the effort. “For this project we needed the diverse contributions of different kinds of experts. We each bring expertise that makes this an especially strong and powerful combination that can accomplish quite a lot.”

Read more: http://hscweb3.hsc.usf.edu/health/publichealth/news/sharing-fight-hivaids/