Afghanistan: Public Health Specialist (HIV Surveillance)

The Silk Route Training and Research Organization is inviting qualified professionals to apply for the position of Public Health Specialist and work on HIV Surveillance in Afghanistan.

The specialist must have at least PhD or equivalent degree in public health and 5 years of experience in project management in developing countries. The specialist must also have at least 2 years of experience in the management of HIV/AIDS surveillance and research projects.

Professionals who meet the criteria, have working experience in the region, and are familiar with the local languages are particularly encouraged to apply. The objectives of the surveillance are as follows:

1) To monitor the trend of HIV prevalence levels among four key population (PWIDs, FSW, MSM and prisoners) through integrated biological and behavioral surveillance surveys;

2) To assess the knowledge about modes of transmission and preventive ways of HIV among these four key populations as well as their HIV/STI/health service use patterns, preferred providers and met/unmet service needs;

3) To characterize risk behaviors (sexual and drug use) among key populations at higher risk, their multiple and overlapping risks (such as drug use among FSW, etc.), their injecting and sexual networks, and their methods of finding sexual/injecting partners (including electronic media);

4) To estimate the prevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV and syphilis among each of four key populations as population estimation so that it could be generalized in the country;

5) To assess the locations and estimate the size of the key populations and estimate total size per province and at national level (this includes validation of sites with key informants as per standard methodology);

6) To provide an integrated analysis of all the collected data including detailed analysis of program coverage (by service, key population and town), and production of spatial maps which are produced for internal planning purposes and are not disseminated to safeguard against harm;

7) To analyze temporal trends in key behavioral and biological variables through comparison of data across new and pre-existing IBBS data.

The assignment is expected to begin in March 2016 and continue for 1-2 years.