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Infectious Diseases
The Infectious Disease Program at the University of North Carolina encompasses a broad range of disciplines including clinical infectious disease, microbiology, epidemiology and public health. The program represents a partnership between the faculties in the Schools of Medicine, Public Health, Pharmacy, Nursing and Dentistry, and especially the Division of Infectious Disease School of Medicine), the Departments of Epidemiology and Health Education (School of Public Health) and the Departments of Microbiology and Biochemistry (School of Medicine). These faculty participate in clinical, teaching, research and training activities.
The Infectious Disease Program has three broad goals:
- to provide both ambulatory and in-patient care for patients with infectious diseases;
- to conduct research in the broad area of infectious disease;
- to train medical students, residents and pre and post-doctoral scientists in infectious disease. UNC faculty have developed a wide variety of Centers to facilitate collaboration across Schools and Departments. The Center for Infectious Disease, formed in 1999, houses a variety of focused and constantly expanding research and training Programs including:
Campus Box #3368 UNC-CH
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3368
Phone: (919) 966 6325
Fax: (919) 843 6195
Phone: (919) 966 2536
Email: cmscohen@med.unc.edu
UNC is one of seven NIH collaborative STD Centers. Research in this Center focuses on classical STD pathogens including N. gonorrhoeae, T. palladium, and C. trachomatis. Vaccine development is a theme common to these research efforts. Several projects include behavioral and epidemiological aspects of STDs.
UNC is the coordinating center for a national NIH STD research effort. This Program is a partnership between UNC and investigators at University of Alabama-Birmingham, University of Washington-Seattle and Family Health International (Research Triangle Park). The Program allows rapid development of new STD diagnostics and therapies including vaccines, topical microbicides, and novel antibiotic utilization.
UNC has joined with Johns Hopkins University to examine strategies for HIV prevention in Malawi, in coordination with other 24other sites worldwide. The UNC research clinic is in Lilongwe, Malawi.
HIV-positive patients are enrolled in clinical trials conducted in cooperation with 36 other US centers. The activities of the ACTG are coordinated with a NIH-funded AIDS Dementia Center and the Comprehensive Hemophilia Diagnostic and Treatment Center.
The US Agency for International Development has developed IMPACT to reduce AIDS in developing countries through condom usage, reduction in the number of sexual partners, and the elimination of classical STDs which facilitate the transmission of HIV. UNC investigators have worked in Haiti, Jamaica, Nigeria, Madagascar, Indonesia, Egypt, India and Malawi and several other countries.
UNC has been awarded one of 18 Centers for AIDS Research. The purpose is to provide infrastructure to support investigation of the HIVAIDS epidemic using clinical research, behavioral research, research into HIV biology and pathogenesis at the molecular level, and educational outreach. UNC CFAR is a consortium of three complementary institutions: UNC-CH, Research Triangle Institute and Family Health International.