Updated HIV Training For Health Care Providers

A regional center based at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health has been awarded a $23 million grant over 5 years to improve the health of people with HIV/AIDS by enhancing the training of health professionals who care for them.
The Pennsylvania/MidAtlantic AIDS Education and Training Center provides HIV/AIDS-related training to clinicians and primary care professionals in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Project Director Dr. Linda Frank is an associated professor of infectious diseases and microbiology. She says the goal is to give updated training to those already providing primary care and to those new to the field......"It's targeted for clinical treaters that are involved in providing direct HIV care to people at-risk for HIV infection and those already infected. The goal of the program is to increase their ability to provide effective treatment and prevention in a clinical setting."

Frank says the program emphasizes support and treatment for the medically underserved, including women, gay men, minorities, prisoners, youth and substance users in urban and rural settings.
Frank says primary care providers need to be updated on current treatment regimens because over the last 10 years the mortality rate for people with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. has dropped 50%..."And so we want to have the latest information in the hands of clinicians who are seeing patients coming into care regardless of whether it's in a hospital, an outpatient clinic, a community health center....we want them to be prepared to be able to offer the current standard of care for HIV treatment."