UCLA researchers recently released a report highlighting the disparity between the proportion of the black population affected by HIV/AIDS and the number of black scientists in the field of HIV/AIDS research.
The article, which was published in the April issue of American Journal of Public Health, was written in part by Professor Gail Wyatt, who led a team of doctors from the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences in February.
In 2007, 49 percent of patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS comprised of blacks, yet they are underrepresented in terms of professionals practicing HIV/AIDS research, according to the report.
The UCLA AIDS Institute contributed to creating a series of recommendations to support black students and established professionals who wish to specialize in HIV/AIDS research.
The recommendations include reaching out to the black community by partnering with institutions such as the Association of Black Psychologists that fund projects to serve minorities, according to a UCLA statement.
Universities are also recommended to offer educational loan repayment to support black students who seek education in HIV/AIDS investigative training.
“The huge debt graduate students are left with is a significant challenge HIV/AIDS investigators are left with, and we are aiming for ways to identify and address their concerns,” said Wyatt, who is a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences.
The UCLA Center for Culture, Trauma and Mental Health Disparities, funded by the Institute for Mental Health, contributed to the social considerations involved with the recommendations proposed by the UCLA AIDS Institute. The center focuses on behavioral, biological and psychological factors associated with trauma and how trauma is handled by ethnic minorities.
“There are too many African Americans affected by the HIV/AIDS virus and not enough funding and resources for African American investigators to be trained. That needs to changed,” Wyatt added. She emphasized that positive role models leading the progression of HIV/AIDS research may be exactly what the black community needs to move forward.
The goal of the recommendations put forward by the UCLA AIDS Institute is to find culturally congruent solutions through the community that the HIV/AIDS virus affects the most.
“It’s very important that African Americans have a voice,” John Williams, assistant professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, said. “There are many challenges for researchers who are not a part of the community, such as issues of trust and the question of intention when there are communities who are being exploited for research.”
The opportunities are not limited to entry-level graduate students. Training programs are available to established doctors and developed graduate students who wish to redirect their careers to HIV/AIDS research. The insight that these professionals can bring is what the UCLA AIDS Institute is seeking so as to put culturally congruent theories into practice.
“In order to get diversity across different fields of research, this whole system needs to be formalized to make mentorship programs part of the norm in graduate studies and give the hard-working academics the acknowledgement they deserve,” Wyatt said.
Mentors play a key role in reaching out to academics wishing to further a career in HIV/AIDS research.
The need for HIV/AIDS researchers to have an ethnically diverse background lies in the foundation of the UCLA AIDS Institute, as it is a world-class institution with medical facilities in India, China, Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa. The new measures to recruit investigators from the black community adds to this wide global network.
“There aren’t enough black and Hispanic doctors represented in the field right now, and pursuing higher education in HIV research isn’t a bad way to go given the state of the economy,” said Paul Sanders, a fourth-year molecular, cell and developmental biology student.
Prospective graduate students in the field of behavioral and biological sciences need not look further than their own community to find world-renowned facilities to work with and opportunities to research viral diseases prevalent in a population close to home.