Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Harry Gwala Regional Hospital (formerly known as Edendale Hospital) is a large (>900 bed) public facility in Pietermaritzburg, the capital city of the province of KwaZulu-Natal, where the burden of tuberculosis and HIV is highest in South Africa. The training site operates under joint supervision of Dr. Douglas Wilson at Harry Gwala Regional Hospital and Dr. Ted Cohen at Yale School of Public Health, who have been colleagues for over 10 years and have conducted research together on tuberculosis and HIV-associated tuberculosis with continuous NIH grant support since 2009. Together Dr. Wilson and Cohen have successfully conducted prospective cohort studies, postmortem studies, and interventional studies within Harry Gwala Regional Hospital and the surrounding community.

Given the tremendous local burden of both tuberculosis and HIV, there remains a wealth of clinical and operational research questions relating to better treatment of these diseases (and associated conditions) and better control of disease in the community.

Dr. Wilson has established a local NGO, Umkhuseli Innovation and Research Management (UIRM), which has served as the primary recipient organization for NIH, Gates and Wellcome Trust awards and provides a unique local infrastructure for supporting research on TB and HIV in the region. UIRM specializes in implementing and facilitating research projects designed to improve healthcare outcomes in challenging settings, in partnership with international research institutions.

Current or recent projects include: