Alcohol Abuse and Hiv/Aids in Resource-Poor Societies

The summary for the Alcohol Abuse and Hiv/Aids in Resource-Poor Societies grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Institutes of Health, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Alcohol Abuse and Hiv/Aids in Resource-Poor Societies: The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism seeks applications for international, cross-disciplinary research on HIV/AIDS, other blood-borne infections [i.e., hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV)], tuberculosis (TB), and comorbid conditions and consequences in alcohol abusing and dependent individuals, their sexual partners, and their children. This RFA is intended to build on lessons learned in developed countries in response to the interrelated epidemics of alcohol and HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. It seeks to foster cross-national and international research collaborations that, through both independent research and the recruitment, training, and mentoring of new, multi- disciplinary researchers, lead to the development, adaptation, replication, and evaluation of effective interventions and approaches to slow or reverse the spread of HIV and other infections in vulnerable heavy drinking populations. Epidemiologic studies on the dynamics of alcohol abuse and HIV demonstrate a continual need to reach new and emerging risk groups in diverse geographic settings with effective prevention interventions. Data from the WHO indicate that while alcohol consumption is declining in most of the developed countries, it is rising in many resource-poor countries and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Males do most of the drinking in these countries, and evidence available regarding patterns of drinking suggests that heavy drinking is prevalent in these countries. The contribution of alcohol to the global burden of disease is significant and growing in some regions, to the point that in parts of Central and Eastern Europe, alcohol use is contributing to an unprecedented decline in male life expectancy. These same parts of the world have seen significant increases in rates of HIV infection over recent years, and there is growing evidence that escalating rates of alcohol abuse and HIV infection are closely related. For example, while the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa, home of two-thirds (23.3 million) of the 33.6 million people in the world living with HIV/AIDS in 1999, has been largely driven by heterosexual transmission, there, as elsewhere, alcohol use is becoming increasingly important as rates of alcohol use continue to rise. It is well known that alcohol use increases the risk of exposure to HIV through its association with high risk sexual and substance abuse behaviors. However, there is also growing evidence that alcohol consumption may play an important role in susceptibility to infection and the progression of HIV disease. This latter includes the occurrence and course of comorbid conditions such as HCV and TB. Research also suggests that alcohol use has important influences on adherence to medications and provider advice, provider and patient attitudes towards treatment, and survival. Challenges for cross- national and international HIV research efforts lie in the diversity of risk groups and communities of alcohol users; the rapidly changing alcohol, Alcohol- and sex-related risk profiles of susceptible populations; the variability in global alcohol use patterns; the complex interactions among behavioral, ethnic/racial, sociocultural, environmental, and biomedical factors that influence the initiation and progression of alcohol abuse and the spread of HIV and other infections; and the differences among resource-abundant and resource- poor countries as to their understanding of the interrelationship of alcohol abuse and HIV, their public health knowledge and experience, and their capacities to respond with durable, effective measures to contain the epidemic. This RFA will support cross-national and international multidisciplinary research on the intersection of alcohol consumption and the HIV epidemic. Investigators representing a broad array of academic disciplines and engaged in cross-cutting fields of science are encouraged to consider designing hypotheses-driven studies that utilize rigorous methodologies from epidemiological, biomedical and behavioral research traditions. Special emphasis areas include: the prevention and treatment of HIV and other blood-borne infections in sexually active populations of alcohol users; the clinical course and consequences of HIV and related health conditions in diverse communities of alcohol users, their sexual partners, and their children; the causes and consequences of differences in HIV-associated risks, morbidity, and mortality between men and women, adults and adolescents, and majority and minority populations who consume alcohol at various levels; and the design, development, and evaluation of behavioral and biomedical prevention measures to reduce the impact of alcohol use and sex-related risk behaviors on the primary and secondary transmission of HIV and other infectious diseases. Community-level interventions which address related social and health policy issues (e.g., alcohol outlet density, alcohol taxation policies, prevention and treatment service distribution) are also of interest. Researchers are encouraged to utilize integrative, multi-method approaches in their study designs. Examples of newer technologies which may be employed include but are not limited to geospatial coding of alcohol-related events and alcohol prevention and treatment resources and medical informatics systems with the capacity to integrate multiple clinical databases. Established researchers are urged to recruit new, domestic and foreign researchers to work on their projects, to provide training and mentoring to help achieve their project's specific aims, and to nurture the career development and independence of new researchers with potential to enrich the multiple disciplines involved in preventing HIV and other infections in high-risk alcohol-using populations.