Women's Interagency HIV Study
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The Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) is a program created in August 1993 "to investigate the impact of HIV on women in the U.S." [1] The study focuses on the unique issues of women's health as it is effected by the AIDS epidemic.
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[edit] Funding
This health study is a program funded by several affiliated U.S. Federal government agencies:
- the NCI, or National Cancer Institute [2] - an agency of the NIH, or National Institutes of Health [3]
- the NIAID, or National Institute of Allergies & Infectious Diseases [4], also part of the National Institutes of Health
- the NICHD or National Institute of Child Health & Human Development [5] - another NIH agency
- the National Institute on Drug Abuse [6] a fourth agency within the NIH. These four agencies are all part of the NIH, which are in turn part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or DDS. [7]
[edit] Projects
Some of the projects noted on the WIHS website include structured interviewing as well as gynecological and general physical examinations. These fund hospitals in Chicago, IL, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, CA. A National Community Advisory Board [8] advocates for women in the community and advises the program on grant proposals.
The study consist of a cohort of HIV positive and HIV negative women being studied over a long term since 1994. This study is now over 13 years old as of 2007. An additional cohort of women were added in 2001 included some women who had taken HAART, the anti-HIV drug regimen. HIV stands for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus, the retrovirus considered by almost all scientists to be the cause of AIDS, or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. HAART stands for Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy.
There is some evidence that women with HIV have more frequent conditions (or higher morbidity) of such infectious diseases as yeast infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and herpes. [9] It is not known, for certain, whether HIV infection causes higher mortality for these diseases, but this may be presumed.
[edit] References
- ^ Analysis of WIHS:[1]
- ^ NCI website:[2]
- ^ NIH main website
- ^ NIAID
- ^ NICHD
- ^ NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse website:[3]
- ^ HHS website
- ^ Community Advisory Board information
- ^ Higher morbidity for certain infections
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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