Doris Duke Annual Seminar for Medical Students from Harvard and UKZN


Each year during AWAAC, the Doris Duke International Research Fellowship at Harvard Medical School sponsors a special seminar for medical students who will be attending the conference. During the seminar, invited faculty members discuss journals article that they select with a group of medical students from the US who are engaging in research in sub-Saharan Africa and a group of South African medical students from UKZN. This year 20-25 students will attend the seminar.

The purpose of the session is to give the students an opportunity to interact with senior researchers and academic leaders in HIV. Therefore, the session is intended to be interactive and informal. Faculty members select one article that the students should review in advance of the session.

The faculty this year are:

- Prof. Francois Venter, Wits & Southern African Clinicians Society

- Prof. Tulio de Oliveira, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, UNZK; University College London & SATuRN director

- Prof. Deenan Pillay, Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, UNZK; University College London (UCL)

- Dr. Brian Zanoni, Infectious Disease Division at Massachusetts General will moderate the session

The faculty have selected three articles this year. These are:

1) Do Age-Disparate Relationships Drive HIV Incidence in Young Women?Evidence from a Population Cohort in Rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Guy Harling et al. JAIDS 2014

2) Assessment of Second-Line Antiretroviral Regimens for HIV Therapy in Africa. Paton et al. NEJM 2013

3) HIV Treatment-as-Prevention Research at a Crossroads. Barnighausen et al. PLoS Med 2014

Discussion in the workshop will include:

- What are the implications of the findings of this article on future research?

What are the policy reprecussions?

The medical students from the Harvard, US are senior students (between 3rd and 4th year) who are conducting research in a wide variety of areas - HIV, TB, surgical outcomes, diarrheal disease etc. Some are working in labs; others are conducting more clinically oriented research. They are working in RSA, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi etc.

The session will be held on Thursday as part of AWACC workshop, Oct 9th at 11:00-13:00.

News date: 2014-10-09

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