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UAB-UMMC Women's Interagency HIV Study

The Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS), funded principally by NIAID and in part by three other NIH institutes, has now come to the South!

id---wihs-logo.jpgWIHS is a long-standing interval cohort study since 1992, involving thousands of HIV-positive and HIV-negative women across the United States. To date, WIHS has enrolled and followed women only in northern and western areas of the country, but 2013 marked the addition of four Southern Highlights from the WHRC sites: a shared cohort between University of Mississippi Medical Center and University of Alabama at Birmingham, one at Emory, one at the University of Miami, and one at the University of North Carolina.

The whole UAB-UMMC cohort is headed by Michael Saag, MD, at the Center for AIDS Research at UAB, while the local UMMC PI is Dr. Deborah Konkle-Parker, PhD, FNP, an associate professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases.

Women will be followed at bi-annual study visits where data on multiple physical, biological and psychosocial variables will be gathered. The research team expects important science to be generated to improve lives of women living with HIV, and to expand knowledge related to HIV prevention and treatment. Science that is a high priority includes hepatitis C, renal effects of HIV, cardiovascular issues and menopause, HPV, microbiome of the female genital tract, immunology, access to care, stigma, and multiple other investigations of interest to WIHS and local scientists.

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