AIDS relief program boosted by Bill Gates

Tessa Vanderhart Staff

As one of the largest AIDS treatment programs in India winds down, a new U of M project has received nearly $6 million in funding to continue the university’s presence.

While Premier Gary Doer was in India to promote business links with the country, the U of M’s work in India was supplemented by $5.9 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The U of M has had a presence in India for 15 years. Two similar programs — one ongoing, the other, which was a collaboration with CIDA, just ending — also focus on treatment, and have been funded by the Gates Foundation.

The “Crossing Pathways” program treats female sex workers and migrants who are at greater risk of becoming infected.

Dr. Stephen Moses, a professor of medical microbiology, medicine and community health, has been involved with the program for a number of years. The program uses research to treat AIDS most effectively.

“It’s based on evidence,” said Moses. “We try to understand what the drivers are for HIV transmission and develop programs that address them.”

This program will seek to address the high rates of HIV infection in two states: rural areas of Karnataka, as well as the more urban Maharashtra. The two areas form a sex work corridor, as sex workers migrate to the urban areas, contributing to the transmission of HIV.

India has the largest HIV-infected population in the world, though the rate of infection is considerably lower than Africa.

Still, noted Moses, “the epidemic is expanding and needs to be controlled.”