August 7, 2007

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Han-Zhu Qian, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, will fly to China at the end of this month to begin field work on a study to assess the prevalence and severity HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis co-infections.

Cases of HIV and AIDS are increasing throughout China. Much of this is a result of unhygienic plasma collecting practices in the country during the early 1990s, which caused 20 percent of reported HIV cases. Those infected during this period are now developing clinical AIDS and are at an increased risk of TB, due to their compromised immunity.

“So far, very little research has been done to evaluate the TB epidemic among Chinese who are living with HIV/AIDS,” said Qian, principal investigator of the study. “In order to determine the severity of TB and HIV co-infection in China, where TB is endemic, we are joining researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to study HIV infected individuals in a rural Chinese community.”

The researchers will assess confirmed HIV-infected individuals in Wenxi County on the Shanxi Province in Central China who most-likely contracted the disease through plasma donation. The researchers hope to estimate the prevalence of TB; identify lifestyle habits, such as smoking and alcohol consumption, related to TB infection; and to evaluate awareness and health seeking behaviors for TB. Funding for this study comes from the UAB Sparkman Center and the Framework Program for Global Health.