Making it Possible for HIV Patients to Receive Needed Care
August 08 2007 - 11:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Waters Teams With University of Buffalo to Extend Quality Medical
Care in Zimbabwe MILFORD, Mass., Aug. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --
The six weeks that graduate student Tinashe Mudzviti spends at the
University at Buffalo this summer could help more than 100,000
people with HIV receive life-saving treatments back in his home
country of Zimbabwe. Mudzviti, a first-year master's student at the
University of Zimbabwe, is the first UZ graduate student to visit
UB as part of a collaborative program between the two universities
to improve the quality and distribution of treatments for HIV
patients in developing nations. Now in its sixth year, the UB
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences clinical and
translational research program was founded by Chiedza Maponga, a
1988 UB graduate and the first clinical pharmacist in his native
Zimbabwe, and his UB mentor, Gene D. Morse, associate dean for
clinical and translational research. The UB/UZ program has been an
important component in recent years in turning the destructive tide
of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe, which is down to 18 percent from 25
percent a few years ago, according to Maponga. "Of all the southern
African countries, Zimbabwe is the only one that is showing a
downward trend," he said. The Zimbabwean government has launched a
campaign to distribute free antiretroviral drugs to 120,000 people
with HIV by the end of 2007. However, Maponga said there are more
than 600,000 are in need of these life-saving medicines in his home
country. As part of his work here, 24-year-old Mudzviti has been
learning laboratory research protocols and technology here at UB,
and has discovered many similarities and a few differences, between
research in the two countries. "There's more an emphasis on issues
of safety, on standard operating procedures, in the United States.
I think we will need to learn put more emphasis on everything we
do, to make everything precise, to make everything accurate and
keep everything tight," he said. Mudzviti, whose trip to Western
New York marks his first journey outside of southern Africa, knows
the responsibility that awaits him upon his return to Zimbabwe.
"Coming here and seeing how things are done from this end means
that when I go back, I'll be in a better position to show people
the practicality of pharmacology theory, that these things can
really be done, that we can do them just as well." Maponga remains
committed to reaching the thousands of ailing patients in his
homeland and those in nearby nations. His mantra of late is that he
works to "build bridges" between Zimbabwe and developed countries
like the United States by adopting the methods that have managed to
ebb their AIDS epidemics, including drug monitoring, distribution
and adherence plans, pharmacological research, education and
training. "Zimbabwe also is one of only three countries in southern
Africa that is producing and using its own drugs to fight HIV. The
work is progressing and the scientists there want to work to make
it different," he said. The two universities rely heavily on
technology transfer to carry on their collaborative work, according
to Maponga, who holds academic appointments at both institutions.
"This means that on a given research project, a student in Zimbabwe
can be collecting samples while a student here at UB is assigned to
do the reading part of the project," Maponga said. The UB/UZ
program early on established a pharmacology support laboratory in
Harare, capital of Zimbabwe and home of its university, in order to
work together on projects with the UB Pharmacotherapy Research
Center (PRC), where Morse serves as director and leads a team of
several scientists and lab staff members. At the University of
Zimbabwe -- home to the nation's only medical school -- Maponga
collaborates with Dr. James Hakim, the institution's lead medical
investigator for HIV research programs, and directs a support staff
that includes nurses and community workers from Harare. The
combined International Center for HIV/AIDS Pharmacotherapy Research
and Training (ICHAPRT) has attracted support for its mission to
further HIV research and prevention, most recently from two donors,
Waters Corporation, which has donated much-needed medical
equipment, and the Gilead Foundation, which has donated $15,000 for
student training. Waters Corporation, headquartered in Milford,
Massachusetts, U.S.A., a global leader in ultra performance liquid
chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography, mass
spectrometry, thermal analysis and rheology instrumentation and
consumables, has donated an Alliance(R) high performance liquid
chromatograph (HPLC) valued at $60,000 for use in graduate student
training. The equipment, now housed in a lab at UB to be used by
visiting students like Mudvziti, eventually will be shipped to
Zimbabwe for implementation at UZ. Sophisticated analytical tools
like Waters(R) Alliance HPLC system are needed at UZ to monitor
drug therapy for individual patients. Michael Yelle, the senior
director of clinical operations at the Waters Division of Waters
Corporation, said the company shares Maponga's vision of helping as
many people as possible through education and technology. "Waters
Corporation is committed to improving human health through the use
of our laboratory products and technologies for research and
patient healthcare. Our work in the clinical market generally and
therapeutic drug monitoring specifically has a direct impact on
patients lives. This donation to the University at
Buffalo/University of Zimbabwe collaborative program on HIV/AIDS
research and treatment in developing nations was inspired by our
desire to support an important program that strives to help those
in need of quality medical care," Yelle said. The corporation's
liquid chromatographs and mass spectrometers also play a key role
in pharmacology research worldwide and make it possible for
hospitals to screen newborns for life-threatening metabolic
disorders and to help provide organ transplant patients the care
they need to help prevent organ rejection. The program at UB
received a supplement from the National Institutes of Health
Fogarty International Center in collaboration with the University
of California Berkeley AIDS International Training and Research
Program (AITRP) The supplement paid for Mudzviti's travel to and
from Zimbabwe this summer. The UB/UZ program also uses its online
HIV Pharmacotherapy Network (http://hiv.buffalo.edu/) to encourage
the global dissemination of ideas on HIV pharmacotherapy,
particularly as they pertain to developing nations. Morse notes
that "with new training and expertise, the University of Zimbabwe
will be better positioned to obtain funding from the World Health
Organization to implement pharmacology-related protocols and enroll
patients in its own clinical trials. This will, in turn, allow for
important clinical research to be conducted that examines the use
of HIV medicine with traditional medicines that used commonly in
developing countries. " The program's top priority remains "to find
opportunities to offer technical support and technology transfer in
the provision of essential medicines for HIV and AIDS in resource
poor settings," according to Maponga. "Ideally those medicines
should be of good quality and made available to patients in a way
that is affordable, and sustainable," he said. "Patients need to be
trained to ensure that they take those medicines as recommended and
be prepared to report any unwanted or unexpected reactions that
they might experience after taking the medications." Training
students like Tinashe Mudzviti properly is the key to the future of
the program and the future of countries like Zimbabwe, Maponga
said, waving his hand toward the student. "He is living proof that
this is not a program that is undertaken so that we can publish
papers and finish a project. We need the students to come here for
the essential science and be able to go back there to apply the
science. When they finish their degrees, we don't say they're
finished. We must continue to groom them until they are able to
write grants on their own and contribute to the scientific
journals, until they can stand on their own," Maponga said. The
International Center for HIV/AIDS Pharmacotherapy Research and
Training (ICHAPRT) will hold a reception from 10 a.m. to 12 noon on
Thursday, August 9, to recognize the accomplishments and supporters
of the program. About Waters Corporation (http://www.waters.com/)
Waters Corporation creates business advantage for
laboratory-dependent organizations by delivering practical and
sustainable innovation to enable significant advancements in such
areas as healthcare delivery, environmental management, food
safety, and water quality worldwide. Pioneering a connected
portfolio of separations science, laboratory information
management, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis, Waters
technology breakthroughs and laboratory solutions provide an
enduring platform for customer success. With revenue of $1.28
billion in 2006 and 4,700 employees, Waters is driving scientific
discovery and operational excellence for customers worldwide.
Waters and Alliance are trademarks of Waters Corporation. For
Waters Corporation: Brian J. Murphy Public Relations +1
508-482-2614 For the University of Buffalo: Mary Cochrane Office of
News Services University at Buffalo (716) 645.5000 x1412
DATASOURCE: Waters Corporation CONTACT: Brian J. Murphy, Public
Relations, of Waters Corporation, +1-508-482-2614, ; Mary Cochrane,
Office of News Services, of The University at Buffalo,
+1-716-645.5000 x1412, Web site: http://www.waters.com/
http://hiv.buffalo.edu/
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