While
the institutional activity of the center takes place in Catalonia, its
research activity is done both at the Spanish and European level.
Currently the center has collaborative links with other international
institutions like the Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) (Atlanta, USA)
and the Bureau of HIV/AIDS, STD and TB, Health Canada, Ottawa. The
center has a collaborative contract with the Universitat Autònoma de
Barcelona; it is an UNAIDS Collaborative Center on epidemiology;
and also it is organizing the XIV International AIDS Conference
(Barcelona, July 2002).
The
funding of the research comes from the Departament de Sanitat i Seguretat
Social, de la CIRIT, from national research agencies (FIS,FIPSE,...), from
the European Union and eventually from the industry. In particular,
currently the center is leading the coordination of an European project on
non-occupation HIV post-exposure prophylaxis with 12 other countries
(Public Health and Consumer Affairs); of two Spanish multicenter studies
on possible adverse effect of intra uterus ARV exposure and a cohort of
HIV positive patients, funded by FIPSE. The CEESCAT is also coordinating
several mulicenter studies on information systems on HIV in Catalonia,
funded by the Departament de Sanitat i Seguretat Social and FIPSE.
The
main current research lines of the center include :
-
Natural
history of HIV infection and its relationship with other pathogens.
-
Determinants
on HIV transmission.
-
Validation
and application of new diagnosis tools.
-
Evaluation
of prevention programs (objectives accomplishment and effectivity).
-
Methodology
development to integrate microbiological, epidemiological and clinical
data from observational studies to traditional surveillance systems.
-
Modelling
and forecasting.
