On September 26-29 in St. Petersburg, a fifth workshop was held under the joint project of the American International Health Alliance (AIHA) and GlaxoSmithKline, with support from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The project is designed to develop Russian specialists in the area of HIV prevention and therapy.

23 AIDS Center infection disease specialists who took part in the workshop came from 19 regions of the Russian Federation, including areas having the highest incidence of HIV infection: Krasnoyarsk, the Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Samara and Kemerovo Regions, and the cities of Irkutsk, Tyumen, Moscow, St. Petersburg, etc.

One of Europe’s leading experts on HIV infection and viral hepatitis, Professor Juergen Rockstroh from the University Clinic in Bonn, who is Chairman of the German AIDS Clinical Society and a member of the Executive Committee of the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS), was a special guest speaker at the workshop.

Professor Rockstroh talked about the importance of cohort studies for investigating the effectiveness, and especially the safety, of antiretroviral therapy. He also touched on the topic of optimizing HIV/AIDS therapy. Elvira Ivanova, GlaxoSmithKline medical executive for HIV, presented the latest information on the safety of abacavir-containing regimens. The new data were obtained from cohort and clinical studies.

In his presentations, Professor Rockstroh devoted a great deal of attention to the problem of HIV and viral hepatitis co-infection. In the developed countries, cirrhosis of the liver resulting from viral hepatitis is moving into top position among all causes of death in HIV patients. In Russia, epidemiological data indicate that over 40% of patients with HIV infection also have chronic hepatitis C, making this topic one of great interest for all participants in the workshop.

V.I. Shakhgildian, senior scientific researcher at the Federal Scientific and Methodological Center for AIDS, presented information on current situation regarding the treatment of HIV infection and viral hepatitis in Russia, raising a number of issues of diagnostics and choosing therapeutic regimens. V.B. Musatov, deputy head physician at the S.P. Botkin Hospital in St. Petersburg, dealt with particular features of management of HIV-infected patients who are active drug users.

Also taking part in the workshop was Professor S.P. Posokhova from Odessa, who is known as a leading expert on the management of HIV-positive pregnant women in Ukraine. Professor Posokhova shared her experience with the prevention of HIV transmission from HIV-infected mothers to their infants, and presented several clinical case studies. J.A. Kukolnikova, a gynecologist, reported on the organization of a service to provide care to HIV-positive pregnant women in St. Petersburg, based at the S.P. Botkin Hospital. Dr. E.M. Mukhina from the Republic Clinical Hospital in Ust-Izhora, St. Petersburg, took workshop participants through the analysis of a number of clinical case studies, related to particular features of managing pregnant women with HIV.

As always, the workshop was interactive, with participants presenting and discussing clinical case studies and sharing their experience of work in the regions.