Date:07/01/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/01/07/stories/2005010715200300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Yale to open HIV research centre

By Our Staff Reporter

Dr. Richard C. Levin, president of Yale University. — Photo: N. Sridharan

CHENNAI, JAN. 6. Richard Levin, president of Yale University in the U.S., has announced the opening of a research centre for HIV prevention in India.

The Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research has received a $2.1 million three-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support HIV prevention research among high-risk populations in India, Mr. Levin said.

According to Michael Merson, professor of public health at Yale, the research team will collaborate with CARE, the international field relief and development organisation, YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education and the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society in pursuit of its agenda. He said the Yale team, which would have 10 faculty members, would hire as many local experts as possible.

Dr. Levin said Yale was involved in several international collaborations, but the AIDS project in India was "powerfully important" because it could save and enrich human lives.

According to the National AIDS control organisation, there were 5.1 million people with HIV/AIDS in the country in 2003. The Yale research would help find interventions most effective in HIV prevention, and the ones that were least effective, said Dr. Levin said at a press conference on Thursday.

A 12-member Yale delegation led by Dr. Levin has been in India since January 1 visiting New Delhi and Bangalore. In New Delhi, Dr. Levin announced a student exchange programme between Yale and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.