Re: Yale HIV research centre in Chennai

[Guest guest]

Please refer to the story below, which accurately describes the

opening of a new Yale office in Chennai, as opposed to a research

centre. More information may be found at www.yale.edu/cira.

Yale University's President Inaugurates New Office for the Center

for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA) in India

On January 6th, Yale University President Levin, officially

inaugurated a new office for Yale's Center for Interdisciplinary

Research on AIDS (CIRA) housed at YRG CARE, a non-profit

organization based in Chennai. The office will operate three

research projects: Project Parivartan, supported by a three-year

grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); a

monitoring and evaluation program funded by the Children's

Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF); and a research and training

program, supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center.

Project Parivartan is supported by BMGF to conduct research on

implementing structural interventions among high-risk groups in the

four southern and two northeastern states of India with the highest

HIV prevalence: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra,

Manipur, and Nagaland. The project's overall goal is to reduce HIV

risk among high-risk populations such as sex workers, truckers, and

injection drug users through the analysis of structural

interventions that focus on altering the context within which

individuals engage in health behaviors or make health related

decisions. The Yale team, led by principal investigator Kim M.

Blankenship, CIRA's associate director and associate research

scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (EPH)

in the Yale School of Medicine, will collaborate in this project

with CARE, an international field relief and development

organization. The team will also work with other partners receiving

support as part of the BMGF's Avahan India AIDS Initiative to

conduct structural analyses of HIV risk and assess structural

interventions for HIV prevention.

The second project housed at the new office is an antiretroviral

(ARV) pilot program being implemented by the Tamil Nadu Care and

Support Network, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu State AIDS

Control Society (TNSACS). Supported by the Children's Investment

Fund Foundation, the program will involve government hospitals, non-

governmental and community-based organizations, and networks of

individuals living with HIV/AIDS. It will provide comprehensive

medical, psychosocial, and nutrition services, including ARV

therapy, to 500 families with a child infected or affected by

HIV/AIDS in three districts in Tamil Nadu. Yale University's

M.R. Lauder Professor of Public Health and Director of CIRA,

H. Merson, is leading a team of investigators affiliated with CIRA

to carry out independent monitoring and evaluation activities for

the program.

Finally, Nalini Tarakeshwar, Associate Research Scientist in the

School of Medicine, and a recipient of an NIH Fogarty International

Center Career Award, has developed a research and training program,

in collaboration with YRG CARE in India that focuses on religious

and cultural factors relevant for HIV secondary prevention and

mental health in India. The training will be used to design,

implement, and evaluate a pilot intervention for promoting HIV

secondary prevention and mental health among serodiscordant couples

(HIV-positive males and uninfected wives) in India.

Levin and other prominent Yale faculty and university administrators

were touring in India to develop closer ties between Yale University

and various Indian institutions, including a partnership with

Jawarhalal Nehru University in Delhi (the eighth partner in Yale's

Fox International fellowship program, a graduate-student exchange

program), and a joint venture with Chennai-based Great Lakes

Institute of Management (GLIM), to establish a management research

center in India. Yale-GLIM Centre for Management Research will

undertake management-related research activities and consultancy

projects, contributing to the development of basic and advanced

knowledge with practical applications.

Hanck

E-mail: <sarah.hanck@...>