Non-profit AIDS Groups to Conduct HIV Care and Treatment Study Tour for Ukrainian Healthcare Providers

WASHINGTON, and LOS ANGELES -- The American

International Health Alliance (AIHA) and the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare

Foundation-Global Immunity (AHF-GI) are pleased to announce that they are co-

hosting an "HIV/AIDS Care and Treatment Study Tour" that will provide hands-on

training to a group of healthcare providers from Ukraine.

The Ukraine and other nations of the former Soviet Union are currently facing

one of the fastest growing rates of new HIV/AIDS infections in the world.

This study tour is part of AIHA and AHF-GI's on-going collaborative effort to

help these countries create a well-trained workforce of health professionals

armed with the knowledge and skills necessary to care for the region's 1.2

million HIV-infected individuals.

Following up on an Anti-retroviral Therapy Workshop that was held in

Odessa, Ukraine, last December, the study tour will give Ukrainian physicians

a first-hand look at effective care, treatment, and prevention programs in

action at six of AHF's healthcare centers in the Los Angeles area.

Participants will also have the opportunity to accompany AHF care teams-which

include physicians, nurses, social workers, and other service providers-on

medical rounds and talk with HIV-positive patients to get their perspective on

the programs.

"We are both honored and privileged to host this esteemed delegation of

key local HIV/AIDS service providers in the Ukraine for this component of the

U.S. study tour at AHF Healthcare Centers in California," said Henry Chang,

AHF Global Immunity's executive director. "We hope to share practical

knowledge on various operational structures and management models for client

services at the community and county health delivery levels with the

delegates; illustrate our own successful management of HIV disease at AHF

healthcare centers; review and strengthen existing collaboration on the PMTCT+

program; and explore developing other treatment initiatives and partnerships

between American International Health Alliance, AHF Global Immunity and

partners from Oblast Hospital and the AIDS Center in Odessa."

For more than a decade, AIHA has worked to advance global health through

volunteer-driven, healthcare twinning partnerships that mobilize communities

to better address healthcare priorities, while improving productivity and

quality of care. Since 1992, AIHA has established and managed more than 100

partnerships that help improve the health status of individuals and

communities in central and eastern Europe and Eurasia by utilizing an

innovative model that enables individuals, institutions, and communities to

unite their voluntary resources and build open, trusting, and dynamic

affiliations through professional exchanges and public-private collaboration.

With activities focusing on community-based primary care, preventing mother-

to-child transmission of HIV, maternal and child health, nursing, infection

control, emergency and disaster preparedness, and healthcare management,

partnerships facilitate the exchange of ideas and instill a strong sense of

ownership within the host communities by encouraging strategic planning

processes that focus on appropriate and sustainable solutions to healthcare

problems. AIHA continues to pursue other projects in keeping with this

mission.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is the largest AIDS organization in the

United States and the largest non-profit HIV/AIDS specialty medical service

provider in the US which operates clinics in the US, Africa and Central

America. AHF serves thousands of patients in California, New York and Florida

regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

AHF Global Immunity is a non-profit, international initiative of AIDS

Healthcare Foundation that works in partnership with local stakeholders to

establish replicable, scalable and sustainable models for HIV/AIDS medical

services delivery in resource-constrained settings. The mission of AHF Global

Immunity is to change the course of the HIV/AIDS epidemic by expanding access

to life-sustaining ARV treatment for HIV positive people across the globe. AHF

Global Immunity operates free AIDS treatment clinics in South Africa: the

Ithembalabantu (Zulu for "people's hope") Clinic in Umlazi Township, Durban,

South Africa; in Uganda: the Uganda Cares Clinics in Masaka and Soroti,

Uganda; and in Honduras: the Siempre Unidos Clinics in San Pedro Sula, and

Siguatapeque, Honduras.

Source: AIDS Healthcare Foundation; The American International

Health Alliance