HSPH Receives $25 Million From Gates Foundation to Prevent Spread of AIDS in Nigeria
An initiative of HSPH to prevent the spread of HIV and AIDS in Nigeria has received $25 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant is the largest single private grant awarded to HSPH in its history and the second given to HSPH by the Gates Foundation in two months. The grant will fund the Nigerian AIDS Prevention Initiative, a program sponsored by HSPH in collaboration with the Harvard Center for International Development at the Kennedy School of Government.
With a population of 113 million people, Nigeria is the most populous African nation. According to the country's Ministry of Health, fewer than six percent of Nigerians are HIV positive. That figure is low compared to other African countries. Yet no one is sure of the exact rate of HIV infection in Nigeria.
"One out of six Africans is Nigerian; the country has 113 million people; HIV/AIDS prevalence is still relatively low. This is an important opportunity to use our experience of 16 years in AIDS prevention in Africa to help a great many people stay healthy," said HSPH Dean Barry Bloom. "The object, based on our experience in Senegal, is to prevent infection from getting to the level of 25 to 30 percent as in other African nations. Major questions exist in Nigeria on sources of infection, routes of transmission, high-risk populations and the best strategies to contain the epidemic. Our inititative is to work with our colleagues in government and NGOs in two Nigerian states to set up a model project for learning how best to control the epidemic."
Added Phyllis Kanki, director of the Nigerian AIDS Prevention Initiative and professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, "One of the major goals of the program is to do better HIV surveillance. We will help and support Nigerian scientists in these baseline assessment programs. This will allow us to better devise relevant intervention programs that are appropriate to the Nigerian setting."
The Nigerian AIDS Prevention Initiative was conceived last summer as a project involving Harvard and Nigerian officials. HSPH already had established significant collaborations with Nigerian scientists, said Kanki, and HSPH officials "thought we could bring together a strong team."
HSPH alumna Arese Carrington, who graduated last spring, expedited the initial planning stage of the proposal. A native of Nigeria and wife of the former US ambassador to the country, Carrington was able to put HSPH representatives in touch quickly with key officials in her homeland, including Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Elected in 1999, Obasanjo has been credited with helping to stabilize Nigeria, which suffered through civil war and military coups over the past few decades. He has stated publicly that he wants to address HIV/AIDS concerns in his country and gave his full support to the Nigerian AIDS Prevention Initiative.
Carrington is associate director of the initiative, a job she feels matches her goals in public health to her desire to help people in developing countries. HSPH members may remember that Carrington was chosen to deliver the Harvard University graduate student commencement address last June.
Carrington will also serve as liaison between HSPH and the Nigerian Advisory Council, established through the initiative. The council will include representatives from Nigeria's National Assembly and National Committee on AIDS, as well as from scientific and business communities. They will guide all aspects of planning and oversee administration of the initiative in Nigeria.
The approach to HIV/AIDS in Senegal provides a model for the Nigerian initiative. Officials in that country worked with researchers, including some from the Harvard AIDS Institute, in the mid-1980s to develop prevention strategies and public health policies. Senegal now reports HIV infection rates at two percent, the lowest among the sub-Saharan countries.
Among the first steps of the initiative will be to identify the presence and strains of HIV in different parts of Nigeria and high-risk populations. The Nigerian Advisory Council will help identify two sites in the country at which the researchers will analyze blood samples and develop prevention measures during the first 18 months of the five-year grant. Experts agree that prevention measures are key in curtailing the AIDS epidemic, especially in developing countries where funds to pay for expensive treatments are scarce.
The initiative will also train Nigerian scientists and officials to help build the country's capacities in measuring HIV infection and formulating AIDS policy.
"We know that if we can go to a country early and cooperate with the people, we can keep levels of HIV infection relatively stable or even bring them down," said Carrington. "We have a wide range of people working on the initiative, so we can reach a broad population in our prevention campaign."
