Zambia

Zambia is a small nation in southern Africa. WHO reports that more than two-thirds of the estimated 11 million Zambians live below the national poverty line, and Zambia ranks 90th out of 103 on the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Human Poverty Index scale. In addition, Zambia carries a high burden of infectious diseases, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis (TB). The Central Statistical Office of Zambia estimates that 20% of Zambians are HIV-infected, and according to UNAIDS, the burden of HIV has reduced the projected life expectancy at birth from 60 years (without HIV/AIDS) to 37 years (with HIV/AIDS). Zambia is one of 15 US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) focus countries (read 2008 Zambia report). Efforts to provide life saving HIV medications to infected persons, however, have been complicated by "brain drain," the lack of adequately trained health care providers to deliver these complex medications safely and effectively. 

CCGHE RESPONDS

CCGHE has partnered with JHPIEGO, the University of Zambia School of Medicine and the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka to improve continuing HIV clinical education with a particular interest in updating HIV knowledge among physicians who practice in remote areas.  The goals of CCGHE clinical training efforts in Zambia are twofold: to improve local HIV clinical expertise and to prevent health care worker migration by keeping physicians interested in providing HIV care in Zambia.

CCGHE-ZAMBIA ACTIVITIES