Current Research

STORC

STORC is a project that seeks to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of using tongue swabs to diagnose TB in prisons of a high-burden, lower-income country. The data collected from this research will help develop alternative diagnostic tools which may be useful when adequate sputum samples are not available.

Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

CIPMATOD

CIPMATOD is designed to increase early case detection of TB and ensure timely and complete treatment while maintaining high TB cure rates in prisons. Additionally, the project seeks to improve identification and linkage to care and service provision for comorbidities or conditions other than TB, improving TB detection/treatment outcomes and the expansion of TB preventative treatment supported by video therapy technology. CHIP will play a pivotal role in the monitoring and evaluation of this demonstration.

Funding: TB Reach/UNOPS, Implementation Partner: Health Through Walls

 SWANSS

SWANSS is designed to mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on those who live and work in carceral environments. Through it, we are studying the correlation of wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) and individual self-collected nasal swabbing for SARS-CoV-2 in the population of Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, GA.

Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

CRAINES

CRAINES is a cooperative agreement in which we are studying the implementation and maintenance of WBS in four jails around the US, including Fulton County Jail. Persons with lived experience of incarceration are valued members of the implementation teams.

Funding: NIH

MALLARDS

MALLARDS seeks to enhance a previously developed strength-based case management intervention by adding peer navigation and delivering the intervention package in an HIV status neutral fashion to persons returning to the Atlanta community after a recent stay in jail. After release, both persons with HIV and at high risk of seroconversion will be enrolled in a community-based study about their transition experience. The intervention focuses on the treatment and prevention pillars of the Ending the HIV Epidemic plan, by keeping people living with HIV virally suppressed and those at risk for HIV seroconversion on preventive therapy.

Funding: NIH/CFAR supplement

MPox

Mpox is a project that arose during the Monkeypox (Mpox) outbreak which sought to determine jail wide viral loads of Mpox before extending to other pathogens via wastewater surveillance. The Mpox project seeks to do this by gaining opinions of former residents and jail workers. The primary objective of the study is to conduct interviews with former residents, to determine acceptability of testing, and messaging for future testing to intensify mitigation efforts. Interviews with people working in the jail will add their perspective on these issues. This information will be important as we conduct investigations into future outbreaks.

Funding: SOM Rapid Synergy

Previous Research/Grants

Spaulding AC, Zawitz C. Vaccination in Prisons and Jails: Corrections Needed in Future Plans. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Aug 24;75(1):e846-e848. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab1031. PubMed PMID: 35083486.

Spaulding AC, Rabeeah Z, Del Mar González-Montalvo M, Akiyama MJ, Baker BJ, Bauer HM, Gibson BR, Nijhawan AE, Parvez F, Wangu Z, Chan PA. Prevalence and Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections in Correctional Settings: A Systematic Review. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Apr 13;74(Suppl_2):S193-S217. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac122. PubMed PMID: 35416974; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC9989347.

PRESS

"Tracking COVID-19 Through Wastewater; Wastewater testing can track viruses on smaller scales than a whole city". National Institutes of Health(NIH) March 23, 2023. https://covid19.nih.gov/news-and-stories/tracking-covid-19-through-wastewater-testing

 

Projects