There are currently three hospitals in Cameroon that are participating in CA-IeDEA: Limbe Regional Hospital, Bamenda Regional Hospital, and Yaoundé Jamot Hospital. To date, these hospitals have provided HIV care to over 18,000 HIV adult patients and 800 children. Currently, 11,000 active adult patients are enrolled in the IeDEA Cameroon cohort.
Research priorities in IeDEA Cameroon include:
- Studying mental health and substance use disorders (MSDs) among people living with HIV. Mixed methods are being used to examine the impact of mental health and substance use disorders on HIV treatment outcomes and identify critical barriers and facilitators to integration of evidence-based MSD interventions into HIV care. Ongoing analyses are also exploring the prevalence and determinants of hazardous drinking behaviors and depressive symptoms among PLWH.
- Evaluating the appropriateness of the PHQ-9 as a screening and diagnosis tool for depression in HIV-infected adult patients in Central and East Africa. Leveraging the psychiatric expertise to diagnose and manage mental distress and depression at Jamot hospital, this study is assessing the sensitivity and specificity of the PHQ-9 as a screening and diagnosis tool among HIV patients in a non-US context, and exploring whether PHQ-9 questions need to be reformulated to capture differences in the way PLWH express mental distress.
- Examining the prevalence and predictors of hypertension among patients enrolling into HIV care and determine treatment and control rates of hypertension and uptake of BP-lowering therapies during follow-up.
- Exploring the acceptability of home-based ART delivery and sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with willingness to accept home-based ART.
Research within Cameroon is led by principal investigator, Dr. Anastase Dzudie, of the Clinical Research Education and Consultancy (CRENC) Foundation and the Douala General Hospital of Cameroon.