Tanzania
Tanzania is an east African nation roughly twice the size of California. Recent UNAIDS estimates show that HIV cases in the country have remained steady since 2001, with women being more infected than men (7.7 percent vs. 6.3 percent). Nearly 10 percent of Tanzanian women aged 25 to 34 years have HIV.
The country has a high incidence of tuberculosis (TB), with approximately 52 percent of TB patients co-infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. Malaria is prevalent, as are food- or water-borne diseases such as bacterial diarrhea, Hepatitis A, and typhoid fever. Tanzania has also had outbreaks of measles, plague, and Rift Valley Fever.
NIAID-Funded Activities
NIAID supports several projects in Tanzania related to HIV/AIDS, including studies on antiretroviral therapies, behavioral interventions, and control of sexually transmitted infections. NIAID also funds research on tuberculosis and malaria, particularly severe malaria in Tanzanian children.
Scientific Advances
Leading Cause of Blindness May Be Controlled by Simple Course of Oral Antibiotic
A 1999 study co-funded by NIAID found that treating communities with a short course of the oral antibiotic azithromycin is more effective than the standard six-week course of daily tetracycline ointment in controlling development of trachoma, an infectious eye disease that persists in many parts of the developing world.
Researchers compared the effect of the two antibiotic regimens on infection rates in villages in trachoma-endemic areas of Egypt, The Gambia, and Tanzania. Village-by-village comparison of treatments showed that three doses of oral azithromycin at one-week intervals reduced levels of infection significantly more than the standard tetracycline regimen. Furthermore, village-wide treatment with azithromycin resulted in a 60 to 90 percent decrease in infection rates a year later.
Today, azithromycin is part of the World Health Organization’s recommendation for treating infection by Chlamydia trachomatis, the bacterium that causes trachoma.
Learn more about the azithromycin study.
Related Links
Government
Non-government
- World Health Organization (WHO) information on Tanzania
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