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Symposia on HIV/AIDS
Purpose
The purpose of these symposia is to provide HIV health-care professionals in Mexico with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to provide comprehensive care to HIV-infected communities.
Objectives
1. To provide comprehensive training in perinatal and pediatric HIV epidemiology, treatment, complications, and prevention to Mexican health-care professionals.
2. To provide these professionals with knowledge, skills, and tools to continue to conduct similar educational campaigns to a broader audience at the local level.
Format
Each symposium is a collaborative effort between experts from Mexico and American HIV/AIDS experts. Invitations to each symposium are extended to approximately 30-50 Mexican physicians and nurses.
Each day of the symposia focuses on two or three major topics. The days begin with a series of lectures on topics related to the focus for that day. A 1 hour break is taken for lunch. Lectures resume for two hours after lunch. In the late afternoon, two 1-hour interactive break-out sessions are designed to reinforce and expand the topics covered during the lectures that day.
Day one serves as an introduction to the disease, and focuses on pediatric HIV epidemiology, diagnosis, and natural history. Day one also covers antiviral treatment, required immunizations, monitoring of HIV-infected patients, and pharmacology. Day two focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of complications of HIV, and the pathogenesis and prevention of vertical transmission.
Methodology
These symposia are designed with the intent of providing attendees with the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to repeat the information to a broader audience at the local level. To facilitate this "train-the-trainer" approach, symposia attendees receive a comprehensive Spanish language syllabus and slide set, which are created by our group at Baylor, with input from the staff at Hospital Infantil. The slide set is suitable for use by attendees for the lectures they may wish to give subsequently in Mexico. All symposium attendees also receive a "Pediatric Starter Kit" consisting of a bibliography of key publications on pediatric AIDS, with synopsis of each (in Spanish). Finally, symposia attendees also receive a Spanish language version of the Baylor College of Medicine educational brochure entitled "Options for Children: A Guide to Antiretroviral Therapies".
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