New USAID-Sponsored Twinning Healthcare Partnership to Create Model HIV/AIDS Programs in Russia
On November 4, 2004, officials from USAID and the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) presided over the signing of a memorandum of understanding to formalize the formation of a new partnership that will focus on creating a comprehensive, integrated program for providing prevention, care, treatment, and social support services to people living with HIV/AIDS in the city of Togliatti in Russia’s Samara Oblast.
The National Perinatal Information Center in Providence, Rhode Island, will serve as the lead US institution of AIHA’s Togliatti/Providence partnership, drawing on the knowledge and skills of local organizations involved in the provision of HIV/AIDS-related treatment and services, including Care New England Health System, Stanley Street Treatment and Resources, and Lifespan, as well as the Rhode Island Department of Health and other community- and faith-based groups.
The Samara Oblast Ministry of Health will serve as the lead Russian institution for the new partnership. The Togliatti City Health Department, oblast and city AIDS Centers, and several other health and social care institutions will also collaborate on the project to further ensure the development of a fully-integrated, community-based model of prevention, care, treatment, and social support in the city of Togliatti.
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| E&E Chief of Staff Brock Bierman (second from left) joins principals in signing MOU to form partnership. |
With an estimated population of 740,000, Togliatti is the second largest city in Samara Oblast. The city’s HIV prevalence rate is one of the highest in the country—1,232 cases per 100,000. As of February 2004, 9,114 of the Oblast’s 21,005 officially registered HIV/AIDS cases were in Togliatti. Experts estimate, however, that the actual number of infected individuals is as much as five times higher than that. While parenteral transmission among injecting drug users has been at the heart of the epidemic in Togliatti and the greater Samara region, heterosexual transmission is rapidly increasing. Additionally, the number of women of reproductive age among new infections is also on the rise, which increases the problem of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Since the start of the epidemic, more than 1,100 infants have been born to HIV-infected mothers and 73 children have been diagnosed with HIV.
Funded through USAID/Russia’s HIV/AIDS Operational Plan, the Togliatti/Providence partnership is one of four new alliances that AIHA will manage under USAID’s HIV/AIDS Treatment, Care, and Support Initiative. Similar in nature to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the overall goal of this new twinning initiative is to create targeted HIV/AIDS-related care and treatment programs that will serve as replicable models for the entire Russian Federation. These model programs will embrace a wide range of psycho-social services and clinical interventions—including highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), treatment for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV, and community-based counseling and support networks—in an effort to provide comprehensive care to people living with HIV/AIDS.
Over the course of the next two years, AIHA’s new HIV/AIDS twinning partnerships in Russia will help the targeted cities establish effective systems and processes that improve their human and organizational capacity to provide high-quality care and services to HIV-positive individuals. The project will also serve as an important capacity-building mechanism that will enable Russia to successfully apply for, and make the best use of, grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Additional partnerships have been created in the cities of Engels (Saratov Oblast), Orenburg (Orenburg Oblast), and St. Petersburg (Leningrad Oblast). The Maryland-based University Research Co. will provide technical assistance for these partnerships through its Quality Assurance Project, working with AIHA to design a high-quality, replicable HIV/AIDS treatment, care, and support system rooted in evidence-based medical practices and compatible with international standards.
The Togliatti/Providence partnership builds on the highly successful twinning model developed by AIHA to address local, national, and regional healthcare issues in Eurasia. The partnerships enable healthcare providers from the region to acquire life-saving knowledge and skills through professional peer-to-peer exchanges that are in keeping with the US Government’s “Partnerships for Freedom” initiative.
"To date, USAID has supported more than 105 AIHA health partnerships in 22 countries—29 of these have been between U.S. and Russian partners," said Brock D. Bierman, Chief of Staff, USAID Bureau for Europe and Eurasia. "We are extremely proud of the record of achievements that these partnerships represent and look forward to continued success."
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