Please join HC3 on Thursday, May 4 at 8am EDT to learn about the findings from a three-country Adolescent VMMC Assessment. The goal of the study was to gain a better understanding of whether VMMC programs are adequately meeting adolescent needs in age-appropriate ways by exploring counseling, communication and client-provider interaction. Cross-country comparisons will be shared from Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The findings have implications for all countries working in the VMMC arena as well as in adolescent sexual and reproductive health programming.
Presenter: Principal Investigator
Aaron Tobian, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Pathology, Medicine and Epidemiology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is also an Associate Director of Transfusion Medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Investigator with the Rakai Heath Sciences Program in Uganda.
Dr. Tobian has an established global research program that studies male circumcision, HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Tobian has lived or worked in five developing countries. In collaboration with the Rakai Health Sciences Program, Dr. Tobian has demonstrated that male circumcision reduces the risk of herpes simplex virus type-2 (HSV-2), high-risk human papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and proinflammatory anaerobes in the penile microbiome in heterosexual men, and has proven that male circumcision also has direct benefits for female partners. Dr. Tobian has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed articles in journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancet and Clinical Infectious Diseases. His work has also been featured on the NBC Today Show, BBC World Service, National Public Radio, USA Today and other media outlets.
The webinar will be moderated by:
Kim Seifert-Ahanda, MPH, is the Senior Social and Behavior Change Advisor at USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS. With 25 years in the field of international health and development, her career has focused on social and behavior change project management and community engagement in cross-cultural settings. Kim’s work has supported health communication across a variety of public health domains in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti and in the United States, including previous positions as Director of Programming and Training for the US Peace Corps, Senior Program Officer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and Nutritional Counselor for the Whitman Walker Clinic. She has a MPH in International Health from Tulane University, a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Vermont and speaks fluent French and conversational Fulfulde.
