International Work

We are very lucky in this country, we have a lot of drugs to treat HIV,  they are simple to take and relatively non toxic.  Others in the world have not been quite so lucky.   There has been a great deal of movement in the roll out of HIV drugs throughout the world,  but often the drugs available are drugs we don’t utilize in this country because of associated toxicities.    

To try to improve the standard of patient care with the treatment resources available, and to ensure that national treatment guidelines increase the choice of treatment options, Stephen’s AIDS Trust runs many educational programmes in Africa, Asia, Libya and China.   This teaching (Continuing Medical Education) programme has been generously sponsored by various commercial companies including Aspen Healthcare, Tibotec, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Pfizer and Armadillo.

Another international teaching initiative is the Specialist Registrar (SpR) teaching exchange between the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and hospitals in Brazil, Zambia, Argentina and Namibia, a programme which will expand in 2011 to include centres in Lithuania and Estonia. For the 3rd year this programme has been sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, and we would like to thank Tibotec and Gilead in particular for their continuing support.

SSAT continues with the HIV workshop programmes in Vietnam, generously sponsored by Abbott, Merck and Pfizer focusing on HIV prevention, treatment of HIV and its infectious and non-infectious complications. This programme has been extended to incorporate the HIV Clinical Nurse Exchange.