*EPF313 04/24/2002
United States To Participate in New AIDS Program
(U.S. hospitals will partner with those in developing countries) (770)

By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- The United States is joining several European nations in partnerships with hospitals and research institutions in developing countries to improve the care and services for HIV/AIDS patients, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson said April 23.

Thompson discussed the mutual benefits of the partnerships for hospitals and research facilities in both the United States and in the developing world, especially Africa, at a press conference while attending a board meeting of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at U.N. headquarters.

Thompson, who recently returned from a visit to Africa, said that the United States has set up partnerships with the governments of Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa. The U.S. Department of Defense, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are also participating in the program.

"The countries have given us the land and the Department of Defense has built the buildings and CDC and NIH are running the operations for counseling, for testing and for treatment. It is working out extremely well," the secretary said.

The partnership program was first developed by Dr. Bernard Kushner, health minister of France. Thompson said that the program, which now involves hospitals in France, Spain, Luxembourg and the United States, "is going to serve a great deal of good internationally."

Thompson said that one of the biggest problems he found during his African visit was with the infrastructure -- how to deliver antiretroviral drugs to areas where they are needed, administer them and test patents' progress.

Coupling the Global Fund efforts with the new partnerships and the use of NIH funds "we have an opportunity to really expand the partnerships and really start building the infrastructure ... so people all over the continent of Africa are going to be able to get treatment," he said.

The NIH funds will be distributed to academic medical institutions, such as the medical school at the University of California at San Francisco, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Harvard Medical School and others throughout the United States. The NIH funds will be combined with money from those institutions to set up clinical operations in developing countries. Over $300 million in U.S. government funds will also be used to help set up local health care facilities to deliver services in 25 countries, he said.

Dr. Tom Coates of the University of California said, "We have been trying to learn how to dispense antiretroviral medications ever since they came on the scene 10 years ago, and since 1996 combination therapy has really changed the lives of a lot of people with HIV.

"There is a triad of care, prevention and human rights and it is that triad that the institutions in the developed countries and the institutions in the developing countries can share back and forth," Coates added.

The University of California at San Francisco includes the largest single AIDS research institute in the United States, with the exception of the National Institutes of Health. Its hospital cares for 4,000 people with HIV/AIDS.

The people cared for at the University of California "vary all the way from middle class men to people who live on the street," Coates said. "One of the things that we've learned is that even people who are living on the street and even people who are injecting drugs and people who lead very disorganized lives can take antiretroviral medications as well, and with as much benefit as people living in regular homes.

"We think there is a great deal to share through the research of the NIH and every research institution in the United States" with those in developing countries, he said.

"Because we had the virus recognized first, because we cared for people first, because drugs were introduced into our population first, we often know first what the limits of the drugs are and how best to manage them," Coates said. "We think there is a great deal of expertise that can be transferred. But we also have a great deal to learn about how these medications can work on the ground.

"We think that the academic medical centers in the developing world can become centers of excellence from which can emanate best practices in HIV prevention, care and human rights," he added.

James Smith, executive director of the American International Health Alliance, said, "We believe that the partnerships in each of our countries ... can really provide the best vehicle for providing good, quality, practical technical assistance."

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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