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Dartmouth-Led Research Team Awarded 5-Year, $1.5 Million Grant to Fight Spread Of HIV/AIDS and TB in Africa

Hanover, NH - At a time when HIV/AIDS in the developing world has reached epidemic stages, a team of international researchers, led by Dr. C Fordham von Reyn, professor of medicine, of Dartmouth Medical School (DMS) and Dartmouth-HitchcockMedical Center has received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to provide HIV and tuberculosis research training to health care workers in Tanzania.

In collaboration with the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS), Boston University (BU) School of Public Health, and the National Public Health Institute of Finland, 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.

The new award from the NIH Fogarty International Center builds on three previous NIH-funded studies conducted by 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 HIV infected patients in Africa. This led the Dartmouth group to investigate a vaccine strategy to prevent bloodstream tuberculosis in HIV infection. Preliminary trials of a new vaccine were conducted in the United States and Finland, including a study published in the journal AIDS this month showing that the new vaccine boosts immunity to tuberculosis in patients with HIV infection. The efficacy of the new vaccine in preventing tuberculosis is now being studied in a large NIH-funded trial among HIV positives in Tanzania.

Said 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."

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. The Fogarty training grant will strengthen our ability to investigate methods to control these dual epidemics in Tanzania," Pallangyo said.

"This project exemplifies the strengths of the Dartmouth medical enterprise: collaboration, inclusion, and the practical application of research and training outside our walls here in Hanover," said Dr. Stephen P. Spielberg, dean of Dartmouth Medical School. "Dr. von Reyn and his team are simultaneously bridging cultures, exchanging knowledge, training physicians here and in Africa, and tackling the very real problems of one of our world's newest and most devastating epidemics -- HIV/AIDS -- and one of the oldest and most persistent -- tuberculosis. And they're doing it not just in laboratories, but in the regions where its effects are most devastating. The lasting legacy for our students, our colleagues and collaborators, and on patients with HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis is incalculable."

Trainees from Tanzania will enroll in DMS degree programs, under the direction of faculty members including Drs. Lisa Adams, Charles Wira, Bernard Cole and Gerald O'Connor. Tanzania health care workers will also enroll in BU School of Public Health degree programs 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.