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Senior researcher Avina Sarna spearheads and coordinates the Council’s global research agenda on access to treatment, implemented under Horizons, the USAID-funded global operations research program. A physician specializing in public health, Sarna is responsible for initiating, monitoring, and evaluating intervention research projects on AIDS treatment in India, Kenya, Thailand, and Zambia, conducted in collaboration with national public and private research institution in these countries.
Prior to joining the Council, Sarna coordinated an FDA-sponsored clinical trial at the Division of Nephrology at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC. She has worked as a physician in India, Poland, Bhutan, Switzerland, and the United States. She has also consulted with the World Health Organization and UNICEF in Iran and Switzerland.
Sarna specialized in internal medicine and has a public health degree, achieving distinction in preventive and social medicine in M.B.B.S. She has published extensively on issues related to HIV and AIDS and has given presentations at conferences and workshops around the world.
A partial list of publications includes:
Sarna, Avina, Indrani Gupta, Sanjay Pujari, A.K. Sengar, Rajiv Garg, and Ellen Weiss. Examining adherence and sexual behavior among patients on antiretroviral therapy in India, Horizons Final Report. Washington, DC: Population Council. (PDF)
Sarna, Avina, Sanjay Pujari, Indrani Gupta, A. Sengar, Rajiv Garg, and Johannes van Dam. 2005. Sexual behaviour of HIV-infected men currently on ART, in Enhancing Male Partnerships in Sexual and Reproductive Health, National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, ICMR, India, pp. 165 178.
A partial list of presentations includes:
Sarna, Avina, M. Hawken, S. Kaai, S. Geibel, S. Luchters, P. Munyao, K. Mandaliya, K. Shikely, M. Temmerman, and J. van Dam. 2006. Promoting adherence to antiretroviral therapy: Directly administered antiretroviral therapy (DAART) intervention in Mombasa, Kenya, presentation at the International Association of Physicians AIDS Conference, New Jersey, March.
Sarna, Avina. 2005. Current research and good practice in HIV AIDS treatment education, presentation at Technical Consultation on HIV Treatment Education, organized by UNESCO/WHO, Paris, November.
Sarna, Avina, M. Hawken, S. Kaai, S. Geibel, S. Luchters, K. Mandaliya, K. Shikely, M. Temmerman, and J. van Dam. 2004. Gender differences in sexual behaviour among PLHA accessing HIV care services in Mombasa Kenya, presentation at APHA, Washington, DC, November. |
