Aug 03, 2021
Stewart & Cheri Reid
"Tackling TB and HIV Pandemics in Zambia - 2002-2020"

Tackling HIV and TB Epidemics in Zambia: 2002 – 2020

Stewart Reid MD, MPH, FRCP(C), DTMH Cheri Reid BSN, MPH, DTMH

We will highlight the historical context of the HIV and TB pandemics as they affected Zambia, the research and program activities that we were involved in at the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ), and the current state of the dual epidemics in Zambia. –

Our Backgrounds:

  • Prior to medicine, Stewart worked in public health in Ghana, West Africa from 1978-80.

  • From 1984 to 1990 we worked at St Paul’s Hospital which was the height of the HIV epidemic in Vancouver. Stewart was an Internal Medicine resident and Cheri worked in the Emergency and Intensive Care Units as a critical care nurse. Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy (ART) was not yet widely available and many patients, and sometimes colleagues, were admitted in the late stages of AIDS and often died.

  • Stewart completed his training, we married, and, after a trip across the Sahara Desert, we moved to Nelson, BC. We spent a decade providing Internal Medicine Consulting services. Being a small community there were only a handful of HIV patients.

  • Both of us were motivated to work in a developing country setting so we took a three-month course in Tropical Medicine at the Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine in Lima, Peru, and then were invited to do a Masters of Public Health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) with the intention of moving to Lusaka, Zambia to join the Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ). In 2002, we moved from Nelson to Zambia in south central Africa.

  • In 2002, CIDRZ was a small satellite research station that was established as a collaboration between UAB, the University of Zambia School of Medicine, and the Zambian Ministry of Health. It had a total of 28 employees.

  • Over almost two decades Cheri worked as the Research Manager of the Microbicide Clinical Trials Network, providing training in research literacy for journalists and the community and then setting up and heading the CIDRZ Communications Department. Stewart worked as the CIDRZ Medical Director and then Principal Investigator of a number of HIV prevention, HIV vaccine and TB/HIV diagnostic and treatment clinical trials as well as the founder and head of the TB Research Depart.

  • During our time in Zambia, CIDRZ experienced phenomenal growth and today is the largest independent healthcare non-governmental organization in Zambia with over 600 employees. CIDRZ has three main aims: 1) Research to answer locally-relevant questions to improve healthcare delivery in Zambia, 2) Technical assistance to the Zambian public health system and 3) Professional Development Training for Zambian medical and public health professionals. http://www.cidrz.org