To strengthen HIV/AIDS care and support services in countries hardest hit by this pandemic, the Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration utilizing the international authority granted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established the International Training and Education Center on HIV/AIDS (ITECH) in 2002. ITECH delivers health provider training to physicians, nurses, and clinical administrators in HIV/AIDS treatment and care, and is implemented through the University of Washington and the University of California at San Francisco.

Through its capacity-building programs, ITECH supports the Millennium Declaration goal to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS, the scourge of malaria and other major diseases that afflict humanity by 2015.

Resources: The U.S. Government’s contribution to ITECH, since its inception, is $5.2 million. These funds provide technical assistance in HIV/AIDS care and treatment, training, instructional design, and evaluation to selected CDC Global AIDS Program (GAP) country offices. Primary partners include the following CDC/GAP priority country offices: Botswana, Brazil, Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. To ensure global collaboration and eliminate duplication of effort additional projects are funded in partnership with various organizations including JHPIEGO which is a not-for-profit international public health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, the National Association of People with AIDS and universities.

Partners: Governments: Ministry/Department of Health in Botswana, Jamaica, Bahamas, Barbados, Trinidad, Tobago, Ethiopia, India, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Thailand, Uganda, and Zimbabwe; and the United States of America (Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Agency for International Development). International Organizations: JHPIEGO, Family Health International (FHI), Mildmay International, Project Concern International (PCI), Regional AIDS Training Network (RATN in Sub-Saharan Africa), Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, National Association of People with AIDS, Joint United Nations, Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Civil Society: Academic Alliance, U.S. AIDS Education and Training Center Network.

Partnership Efforts To Date: ITECH has conducted needs assessments in each of the 14 partner countries, with the host country’s Department of Health/Ministry of Health. Based on the needs assessment, a scope of work has been established for each of the partner countries, with input from stakeholders. Proposed activities include: establishing Centers of Excellence on HIV/AIDS training, curriculum development on anti-retroviral therapy for nurses and physicians, training and technical assistance for health care workers on providing home based care.

USG Primary Point of Contact: Health Resources and Services Administration: Howard Lerner (Telephone: 301-443-3573, Email: hlerner@hrsa.gov:) and Health Resources and Services Administration, HIV/AIDS Bureau: Thurma McCann Goldman, MD, MPH (Telephone: 301-443-0394, Email: tgoldman@hrsa.gov).

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