NIH has renewed grants going to seven regional centers that form the International Epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (leDEA) program https://www.iedea.org.
NIH will be awarding $20.8 Million in first year funding with the grants expected to last five years and total an estimated $100 million. The 15 year leDEA program efficiently advances knowledge about HIV by pooling and analyzing de-identified health data from more than two million people with HIV on five continents to answer research questions that individual studies can’t address.
The initiative also provides data to international partners to provide information on global health policy. In addition, leDEA builds the global health research infrastructure to help the next generation of scientists address questions important to their geographical regions. The program also works to improve the quality of international health data by identifying gaps in both data and analytical methods.
The new funding will enable the program to add a Sentinel Research Network (SRN) to collect cardiovascular, cancer, lung, metabolic, substance use, and mental health data to characterize the sizable impact of non-communicable diseases on people with HIV today.
The SRN will consist of at least two HIV clinics per region to collect data on non- communicable diseases as well as on hepatitis, the level of HIV in the blood, and a patient’s level of immune health. These clinics will be located in low and middle income countries.
Half of the new funding for leDEA comes from NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.(NIAID). The other half comes from NIH funding partners, to include, the Fogarty International Center, NICHHD, NCI, NIAAA, NIDDKD, NIDA, NHLBI, and NIMH.