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ALPHA Network

The ALPHA network aims to maximise the usefulness of data generated in community-based longitudinal HIV studies in sub-Saharan Africa for national and international agencies involved in designing or monitoring interventions and epidemiological forecasting.

The project links existing African HIV cohort studies and runs training workshops to facilitate replication of analyses of demographic correlates and consequences of HIV infection. Comparative studies and meta-analyses are undertaken on comparable data sets, imposing a common format on data collected and stored in a variety of ways.

The ALPHA network is funded by The Wellcome Trust and is in its second phase (2010-15). The network is coordinated by the Population Studies Department at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

ALPHA logo

Its members are:

Country Joined Site Short name
Kenya 2010 Nairobi urban cohort study operated by the Africa Population Health Research Centre APHRC
Kenya 2010 CDC/KEMRI study site in Kisumu Kisumu
Malawi 2005 Karonga Prevention Study in Northern Malawi managed by LSHTM Karonga
South Africa 2005 Umkhanyakude cohort in Hlabisa district managed by the Africa Centre in KwaZulu Natal ACDIS
South Africa 2010 Agincourt study in Mpumalanga Province Agincourt
Tanzania 2005 Kisesa open cohort managed by the TAZAMA programme at NIMR (Mwanza) Kisesa
Tanzania 2010 Kilombero cohort operated by the Ifakara Health Institute Ifakara
Uganda 2005 Kyamulibwa general population cohort managed by MRC/UVRI in Masaka district Masaka
Uganda 2006 Rakai study, managed by Makerere University and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Rakai
Zimbabwe 2005 Manicaland Study in Eastern Zimbabwe managed by Imperial College and the Blair Research Training Institute Manicaland

Further community-based cohort studies that begin HIV data collection may be invited to join the network to develop their expertise in longitudinal analysis techniques.

The specific studies undertaken or forthcoming are described in detail under the workshops heading in the side menu. Each workshop page also contains links to the open-access publications resulting from the completed workshops.

An important subsidiary aim of the network is building capacity in analytical, statistical and presentational skills at all the collaborating studies.

ALPHA workshops are the central activity of the network. Each workshop incorporats teaching and demonstration sessions which launch analyses on a particular topic. Typically, these are led by scientists from the site that has made most progress to date with work on that topic. The resulting site-specific and comparative cross-site analyses are published in special open-source journal issues.

Collaborative work from the network sites has been presented at international conferences, including the International AIDS Society in Mexico 2008, and the International Union for Scientific Study of Population in Marrakesh 2009 and the International AIDS Society in Vienna 2010 .

For further information contact alpha@lshtm.ac.uk