Sarah Puryear, MD, MPH

I am an infectious disease (ID) physician and clinical researcher whose work focuses on the intersection of alcohol, HIV, and tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa. I am currently an assistant professor in the Division of HIV, ID, and Global Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). I am trained in infectious diseases, HIV and TB prevention and epidemiology, and work as a physician in the Ward 86 HIV clinic and the inpatient Internal Medicine and HIV/ID consult services at San Francisco General Hospital. I have worked in research and public health programming in sub-Saharan Africa since 2007.

My research focuses on defining HIV care outcomes and TB epidemiology among persons who engage in alcohol use, who are a high-risk group for poor outcomes and may benefit from novel service interventions. Currently, I am focused on understanding the epidemiology of alcohol use and its relationship to HIV care outcomes among youth living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa with the ultimate goal of developing youth-specific, culturally appropriate alcohol interventions. Additionally, I am co-leading a randomized controlled trial within the SEARCH-Sapphire study (PIs: Havlir, Petersen, Kamya) to test a novel recruitment and intervention strategy to improve viral suppression among people living with HIV who have hazardous levels of alcohol use. Across my research, I am interested in leveraging alcohol biomarkers to better understand the measurement of alcohol use.