Research Fellow in TB/HIV Epidemiology, LSHTM

Research Fellow in TB/HIV Epidemiology

Employer: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), UK

Salary: £38,533 to £43,759 per annum

The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is a world-leading centre for research and postgraduate education in public and global health. Our mission is to is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and practice.  

The Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Diseases encompasses all of the laboratory-based research in the School as well as that on the clinical and epidemiological aspects of infectious and tropical diseases. The range of disciplines represented in the faculty is very broad and inter-disciplinary research is a feature of much of our activity. The spectrum of diseases studied is wide and there are major research groups with a focus on malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, vaccine development and evaluation, and vector biology and disease control. 

The Department of Clinical Research addresses infectious diseases of major public health importance in developing countries. Activities include trials of new therapies, vaccines and educational interventions; the development of new diagnostic tests; studies to elucidate the immunological and molecular correlates of pathogenesis and protective immunity, and to identify genetic polymorphisms conferring protection or susceptibility to infectious diseases; health services research which aims to identify the most efficient and cost-effective way to deliver health care; and health policy analysis.

The TREATS (Tuberculosis Reduction through Expanded Anti-retroviral Treatment and Screening for active TB) project consists of a series of linked studies that will provide definitive cluster-randomised evidence of the effect of a household-level combined HIV and TB prevention intervention on the burden of TB at population level. These studies are nested within the ongoing HPTN071(PopART) trial, the largest trial to measure the impact of a combination HIV/TB prevention intervention on HIV incidence, which is being conducted in Zambia and South Africa. The TREATS project will produce two major outputs of global importance to public health policy. The first will provide definitive evidence of the impact of scaled up combination TB/HIV prevention interventions on TB. The second output will improve understanding of the best ways to measure the impact of public health interventions on TB burden. This is a unique opportunity to assess the impact of combination HIV prevention, including universal HIV testing and treatment, combined with population screening for active TB, on the burden of TB. The HPTN071(PopART) trial, a cluster randomised trial in 21 communities in Zambia and South Africa with a population size of approximately 1million individuals, is unlikely ever to be repeated. The recently adopted WHO guidelines of a “universal treatment” strategy for HIV, will prompt policymakers to seek strategies of case-finding for HIV offering an opportunity to conduct TB screening on a large scale. The results from the TREATS project will therefore provide unique and timely information of the additional costs and benefits of combined TB and HIV prevention strategies at population level. 

For more details and to apply, visit the LSHTM website.

Closing date: 11 February 2018