For Immediate Release: November 17, 2003

CONTACT: Deborah Kimbell
603-653-1913
deborah.kimbell@hitchcock.org

DARTMOUTH-LED RESEARCH TEAM AWARDED 5 YEAR, $1.5 MILLION GRANT TO FIGHT SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS AND TB IN AFRICA

LEBANON-NH -- At a time when HIV/AIDS in the developing world has reached epidemic stages, a team of international researchers, led by Ford von Reyn, M.D. of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth Medical School, has received a 5-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to provide HIV and tuberculosis research training to healthcare workers in Tanzania.

In collaboration with the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS) and Boston University School of Public Health, the Dartmouth/Boston University AIDS Training and Research Program (AITRP) is designed to increase knowledge and enhance research skills and capacity among Tanzanian scientists working with HIV and tuberculosis. The ultimate goal of the training and the associated research projects is reduction in the number of deaths due to HIV and tuberculosis in Tanzania.

Dr. von Reyn is an infectious disease specialist, and Chief of the Section of Infectious Disease and International Health at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. He has conducted research on AIDS in Africa since the late 1980's.

The new award from the NIH Fogarty International Center builds on three previous NIH-funded studies conducted by Dr. von Reyn and co-investigator Dr. Richard Waddell. These studies were the first to demonstrate the high rate of unrecognized and untreated bloodstream tuberculosis infections among AIDS patients in Africa. The Dartmouth group is currently conducting a trial of a new vaccine against tuberculosis for people with HIV infection. A study published by Dartmouth and Finnish investigators in the journal AIDS this month shows that the vaccine boosts immunity to tuberculosis in patients with HIV infection.

AIDS and tuberculosis are major health problems in Tanzania. AIDS was first reported in Tanzania in 1983, according to Dr. Kisali Pallangyo, Professor at MUCHS and co-investigator on the studies in Tanzania. "By the end of 2002, over 2.4 million people in Tanzania were estimated to have HIV and the rate of tuberculosis cases increased four to five-fold during the same period." According to Pallangyo, "The Fogarty training grant will strengthen our ability to investigate methods to control these dual epidemics in Tanzania."

Trainees from Tanzania will enroll in degree programs at Dartmouth Medical School under the direction of faculty members including Drs. Lisa Adams, Charles Wira and Gerald O'Connor. Tanzania healthcare workers will also enroll in degree programs at Boston University School of Public Health directed by Dr. C. Robert Horsburgh, Chairman of Epidemiology. According to Horsburgh, "The public health programs at BUSPH will provide valuable training to Tanzanian physicians focused on the major health problems of HIV and tuberculosis." Tanzanian trainees will also take part in programs at the National Public Health Institute of Finland under Drs. Jenni Vuola and Hanna Soini.

Said Dr. von Reyn: "The new Dartmouth/BU AIDS training program will bring together clinicians, epidemiologists, basic scientists, and experts in international public health to train Tanzanian scientists to conduct research in methods to control both HIV and tuberculosis in their country."