Assistant Professor Megan Fitzpatrick, MD, has been awarded a UW-Madison Global Health Institute (UW GHI) Seed Grant in support of her research on the real-world efficacy of HPV vaccination in rural Zimbabwe. Specifically, Dr. Fitzpatrick will investigate the effectiveness of the school-based HPV vaccination campaign in the Chidamoyo region of rural Zimbabwe (which began in 2018), and measure HPV infection rates in a cohort of Zimbabwean girls that received the HPV vaccine, including young women living with HIV. Dr. Fitzpatrick began collaborating with Chidamoyo Hospital and Zimbabwean researchers in this study during an HPV study in 2016-2017. The UW GHI funded study is a continuation and expansion of a community-based cluster-randomized effectiveness trial targeting mother-daughter pairs in rural Zimbabwe for cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination, which was initially supported in part by research funds from the Department of Pathology.
The UW-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI) mission is to improve and inspire collaboration, educate tomorrow’s leaders and promote research and outreach to improve well-being for all. By applying research across disciplines and continents, this project will further the GHI’s vision of equitable and sustainable health globally.