The Universidad Central de Caribe (UCC) School of Medicine in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, seeks support for a Minority Drug Abuse Research Development Program in response to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Initiative for Minority Institutions (MIDARDP, PD No. PAR 98-0001). The proposed Puerto Rico Drug Abuse Research Development Program (PRDARDP) will focus on developing an infrastructure, and the necessary environment and resources, at the UCC School of Medicine to train Puerto Rican (Latino) researchers in understanding drug abuse and its medical, social and psychological consequences, with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS. During the first five years, the proposed PRDARDP will focus on training program participants from the biomedical and behavioral sciences, following a general theme: The medical, social and psychological consequences of drug abuse, with a focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Our initial focus will be with the outcomes of drug abuse, not its antecedents. The individual research projects proposed in the PRDARDP will address three critical issues of this theme: HIV risk behaviors; effects of drug use on the immunology system and patterns of health care among HIV seronegative and seropositive drug abusers. The structure of the PRDARDP comprises three cores: Administrative, Research and Methodology, and Training cores. The training curriculum is extensive in content and structure, addressing the different components of the drug abuse and HIV/AIDS research fields. Our goal is to have the PRDARDP evolve into a training resource for Puerto Ricans and other Latinos in the US as well as in the South and Central America.
