Placing Global Science in Africa: International Networks, Local Places, and Virus Research in Uganda, 1936-2000

“Placing Global Science in Africa: International Networks, Local Places, and Virus Research in Uganda, 1936-2000” analyzes six decades in the history of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) as a site of knowledge production in order to show the connections between place, scientific research, and the history of Uganda and nearby parts of East Africa. It repositions Africans and African institutions at the core of the narrative, re-centering our understanding of the relationship between global science and African science. Using archival sources, published articles, and over sixty oral history interviews collected during fifteen months of field work, it explores the events that led to the establishment of Africa, and Uganda in particular, as a center of biomedical research, much of it focused on HIV/AIDS. It adds a historical dimension to a body of literature on medical research in Africa that has been dominated by anthropologists and shows how Uganda was a hub of virus research long before the AIDS epidemic. The project takes advantage of the longevity of the UVRI (previously known as the Yellow Fever Research Institute or YFRI and the East African Virus Research Institute or EAVRI) to study the changes and continuities in research practices between colonial, post-colonial, and post-Civil War periods of Ugandan history and to trace changing ideas about the relationship between disease, health, and place; the role of African skilled labor; the place of African institutions in the global community; and the ways African natural and social environments are investigated and represented for different audiences. All of this material serves to refine our understanding of what the “local” of local partnerships in international medical research collaborations signifies and how it shapes major international medical research projects

Monitoring Temporal Changes in the Specificity of an Oral HIV Test: A Novel Application for Use in Postmarketing Surveillance

BACKGROUND: Postmarketing surveillance is routinely conducted to monitor performance of pharmaceuticals and testing devices in the marketplace. However, these surveillance methods are often done retrospectively and, as a result, are not designed to detect issues with performance in real-time. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Using HIV antibody screening test data from New York City STD clinics, we developed a formal, statistical method of prospectively detecting temporal clusters of poor performance of a screening test. From 2005 to 2008, New York City, as well as other states, observed unexpectedly high false-positive (FP) rates in an oral fluid-based rapid test used for screening HIV. We attempted to formally assess whether the performance of this HIV screening test statistically deviated from both local expectation and the manufacturer's claim for the test. Results indicate that there were two significant temporal clusters in the FP rate of the oral HIV test, both of which exceeded the manufacturer's upper limit of the 95% CI for the product. Furthermore, the FP rate of the test varied significantly by both STD clinic and test lot, though not by test operator. CONCLUSIONS: Continuous monitoring of surveillance data has the benefit of providing information regarding test performance, and if conducted in real-time, it can enable programs to examine reasons for poor test performance in close proximity to the occurrence. Techniques used in this study could be a valuable addition for postmarketing surveillance of test performance and may become particularly important with the increase in rapid testing methods

Placing Global Science in Africa: International Networks, Local Places, and Virus Research in Uganda, 1936-2000

“Placing Global Science in Africa: International Networks, Local Places, and Virus Research in Uganda, 1936-2000” analyzes six decades in the history of the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI) as a site of knowledge production in order to show the connections between place, scientific research, and the history of Uganda and nearby parts of East Africa. It repositions Africans and African institutions at the core of the narrative, re-centering our understanding of the relationship between global science and African science. Using archival sources, published articles, and over sixty oral history interviews collected during fifteen months of field work, it explores the events that led to the establishment of Africa, and Uganda in particular, as a center of biomedical research, much of it focused on HIV/AIDS. It adds a historical dimension to a body of literature on medical research in Africa that has been dominated by anthropologists and shows how Uganda was a hub of virus research long before the AIDS epidemic. The project takes advantage of the longevity of the UVRI (previously known as the Yellow Fever Research Institute or YFRI and the East African Virus Research Institute or EAVRI) to study the changes and continuities in research practices between colonial, post-colonial, and post-Civil War periods of Ugandan history and to trace changing ideas about the relationship between disease, health, and place; the role of African skilled labor; the place of African institutions in the global community; and the ways African natural and social environments are investigated and represented for different audiences. All of this material serves to refine our understanding of what the “local” of local partnerships in international medical research collaborations signifies and how it shapes major international medical research projects

Clinic-level temporal signals of the daily false positive rate of the Orasure rapid oral HIV test performed in New York City's 10 DOHMH STD clinics from March 1^st 2005 to June 30^th 2008.

<p>Showing clinic-level signals with a p-value of less than 0.01 only.</p