CARE (Common Actions Against HIV/TB/HCV Across the Regions of Europe) is a new EU project designed to foster scientific cooperation between the EU and the Russian Federation in the field of infectious diseases. The project aims at to address the HIV, TB and HCV in the WHO European Region. The CARE project launched on the 1st of January 2019 with the support of the Health, demographic change and wellbeing section of the Horizon 2020 programme[1].
WHAT IS CARE
Partners involved in the CARE project represent established scientific and health institutions from 10 countries that bring together their expertise on HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), TB (tuberculosis) and HCV (hepatitis C) to generate novel research findings based on existing biological material and data already collected.
In addition to that, new samples and data will be gathered from people living with TB, HIV and HCV in Eastern Europe and Russia during 2019-2020. The project findings will be used in future efforts addressing HIV, TB and HCV infections across Europe and Russia.
COMMON CHALLENGES
In recent years both ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) and WHO-Europe (World Health Organisation)[2][3] have reported that HIV and TB epidemics have deteriorated in Eastern Europe.
In Europe, HIV affects an estimated 2.3 million people with the majority of them living in the eastern part of the Region.
Europe has the highest rate of new multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases in the world, most of which occur in the 9 high-burden countries (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan).
Furthermore, around 10 million people (2.0% of adults) live with hepatitis C infection in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which accounts for two-thirds of the infected persons in the Region[4].
A significant proportion of individuals are also affected by co-infections and comorbidities that have an adverse effect on their prognosis and pose a global challenge to healthcare, particularly in case of HIV/TB and HIV/HCV co-infection.
SCIENTIFIC COOPERATION IS THE KEY
Common Action CARE is honoured to support the commitment from the European Union and from the Russian Federation and contribute to joint research and collaboration between research and healthcare centres to address HIV/TB/HCV across the European Region.
The CARE activities not only work towards establishing new scientific networks but also towards consolidating previous cooperative actions between the European Union and the Russian Federation. The project directs coordinated research involving scientists from the EU and Russia, where European participants are funded by the European Commission, and the Russian participants by the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.
The scientific cooperation within the project aims to expand and distribute the latest scientific advances in addressing HIV, TB and HCV epidemics in Europe and Russia.
In CARE we support the idea that scientific cooperation facilitates the dissemination of advanced scientific methodology and serves as a platform for researchers’ networking in various fields[5]. In that regard, scientific and technological cooperation within the project aims to expand and distribute the latest scientific advances in addressing HIV, TB and HCV epidemics in Europe and Russia.
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