International Collaborations

The CDRC works closely with the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health which has provided approximately one million dollars annually to the University of Miami School of Medicine since 1988. Some such programs increase the capacity of developing countries to deal with the AIDS epidemic and its effected populations, especially chronic drug users, through epidemiological research, clinical trials, and other prevention programs. In addition, collaborative HIV/AIDS-related research between American and international scientists in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment of AIDS, has been supported. The CDRC has forged relationships with the University of Costa Rica, the University of the West Indies, the Salvadoran American Humanitarian Foundation and the American Nicaraguan Foundation. These programs stimulate cooperation and sharing of research knowledge by scientists combating AIDS worldwide 

Collaborative research with faculty at the University of Miami has taken place in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, India, China, Slovakia, Venezuela, and Costa Rica. Large scale NIH funded programs investigating various aspects of HIV have been conducted in Brazil, Honduras and the Caribbean. This research is the result of combined efforts by investigators from the University of Miami and other agencies and Universities including the CDC, World Health Organizaion/Pan American Health Organization, Harvard University, Emory University, University of Alabama in Birmingham, and the University of Maryland.

The CDRC, with funding from NIDA, established the Comprehensive Research Center (East) at Yunnan University in the Yunnan Province of China to study drug use. Yunnan Province borders Burma and is where a high prevalence of HIV was initially recognized in China. This epidemic emerged first among injecting drug users along the rural borders of Burma and moved eastward toward the urban area of Kunming. The  Yunnan CDRC, modeled after University of Miami CDRC, studies the relationships between IDUs, non-IDUs, and HIV infection as the epidemic moves from rural to urban areas as drug users switch from the more traditional route of ingestion of non-injection to injection of heroin.

The CDRC is in the forefront of drug abuse research. The wide range of studies and projects extend from  the estimation of the prevalence of health disorders, including HIV, among drug users and the associated risk factors to the prevention of drug use among adolescents. The CDRC has taken the initiative in the developing intervention programs dealing with all phases of drug use. Such interventions are aimed at the prevention and cessation of drug use and the improvement of the health and lives of drug users. Interventions for both HIV-positive and HIV-negative drug users and their sex partners have been implemented to transmit the skills needed to impede the spread of HIV.  Other interventions have targeted improved health care among drug users. The knowledge gained through the research performed at the CDRC is used by drug treatment providers and public health officials to plan and implement programs aimed at drug abuse. The CDRC will continue to serve the University of Miami and the greater community into the future.