Nabunya, Kabarambi, Nartey, Awarded the Brown School Global Pilot Funds
Dr. Proscovia Nabunya (ICHAD Co-Director) and Brown School Doctoral Students, Dr. Anita Kabarambi and Ms. Portia Nartey were awarded the 2024 Brown School Global Pilot Funds that aim to support global research for Brown School faculty and students.
The first project, “Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes, and Acceptance of Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) HIV Prevention Messaging among Youth Living with HIV,” was awarded to Drs. Nabunya and Kabarambi. U=U is a promising prevention strategy aimed at reducing HIV transmission among individuals living with HIV. This concept highlights that a person living with HIV who is on ART treatment and maintains undetectable viral load has zero risk of transmitting HIV to their non-HIV infected sexual partner. While U=U HIV prevention efforts have been adopted in high-income countries, the awareness and adoption of this strategy in high HIV-burden countries, including in Uganda, remains low. This project will leverage ICHAD’s ongoing studies to assess knowledge, attitudes and acceptance of the U=U messaging and the associated factors among young people living with HIV in Uganda. The study will also explore attitudes and acceptance of the U=U messaging among healthcare workers serving this population in health clinic settings.
Ms. Nartey’s proposal, “Key Stakeholder Consultations to Inform the Adaptation of an Economic Empowerment Intervention among Adolescent Girls in Ghana,” received the student global pilot award. This project aims to garner stakeholder insights, feedback, and recommendations to inform the adaptation of an economic empowerment intervention aimed at addressing poverty and the associated risk behaviors among adolescent girls in Ghana. Given its success in addressing HIV risk behaviors among adolescent girls in Uganda, this intervention could be adapted to address poverty and associated risk behaviors among Ghanaian adolescent girls. To ensure its contextual appropriateness and the maximum acceptability, Portia will engage key stakeholders to obtain feedback on intervention design and implementation of the proposed intervention, and will closely collaborate with scholars at the University of Ghana.