Nearly 20,000 HIV patients have been treated at the two Central Africa IeDEA sites in the Republic of Congo (ROC)—Brazzaville Hospital and Pointe Noire Hospital. The cohort almost 21,000 patients, including 6,100 patients who are currently receiving HIV care. Two-thirds of the ROC cohort are female, and approximately 6% were under age 15 at the time of cohort entry.
IeDEA’s current research priorities in ROC include:
- 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 (MDD) at Brazzaville 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 temporal trends in characteristics and outcomes of adolescents enrolled in care and on treatment.
- Studying trends in socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of HIV-positive children (< 10 years) at time of enrollment in care and time of ART initiation.
Research within ROC is led by principal investigator, Dr. Dominique Nsonde, of the Centre de Traitement Ambulatoire de Brazzaville.