On July 29, 2025, ICAP presented the Grand Rounds — Responding to Advanced HIV Disease: Global Lessons from a Multi-Country Assessment.

Advanced HIV Disease (AHD) is the late stage of HIV infection where the immune system is severely weakened, making the body vulnerable to opportunistic infections and certain cancers. People with AHD face an increased risk of serious illness and mortality, especially if they do not receive timely diagnosis and treatment.

At the July Grand Rounds, experts from ICAP at Columbia University shared lessons learned from a multi-country assessment of AHD service delivery conducted in 2024. The presentations explored how ICAP-supported facilities in 14 resource-limited countries screen, diagnose, and treat AHD, and successes and challenges of implementing these services.

Presenters
Suzue Saito, PhD, MIA, MA, Director, Strategic Information Unit, ICAP at Columbia University 
Dr. Suzue Saito is an epidemiologist and public health specialist with over 20 years of experience in designing and implementing large-scale strategic information systems for public health service delivery and surveillance programs. Dr. Saito is currently the principal investigator of the global health security surveillance project that supports wide ranging priority disease and antimicrobial resistance surveillance capacity strengthening initiatives in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Central America, and Southern African regions. Further, building on her extensive experience in public health evaluations to evaluate the impact of innovative HIV-related health services using implementation science and quasi-experimental study methods, she is the evaluation lead for the CDC-funded regional centers for public health preparedness and response project, spearheading approaches to design evaluations to generate evidence-based strategies and interventions. Dr. Saito holds a doctoral degree in Epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Andrea Howard, MD, MS, Director, Clinical and Laboratory Unit, ICAP at Columbia University
An epidemiologist who is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, Dr. Andrea Howard oversees the design and implementation of ICAP’s clinical, laboratory and training programs for the prevention, care and treatment of HIV, tuberculosis, and other conditions of public health significance, to ensure that they are based on the latest scientific evidence and are consistent with international best practices. At the Mailman School of Public Health, where she is director of the Global HIV Implementation Science Research Training Fellowship, Dr. Howard is training the next generation of investigators in implementation science to ensure that evidence-based interventions are implemented effectively in real-world settings. Dr. Howard has an MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and an MS in Clinical Research Methods from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Including commentary from:

Tafadzwa Dzinamarira, Country Director, ICAP in Zambia
Thais Ferreira, Program Director, ICAP in Mozambique