The World Aids Foundation was jointly incorporated by the Institut Pasteur and the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States of America in December 1988. It is intended to subsidize programs of research and education actions so as enable in the developing world to better respond to the AIDS pandemic. On June 29, 2001, its Board of Governors convened at the Institut Pasteur with a view to electing the new programs for fighting against AIDS for the year 2002. Thirty-two projects were selected.
Since its incorporation, the two founders, the Institut Pasteur and the Department of Health and Human Services of the United States of America, have contributed to the financing of the World Aids Foundation by granting a significant share of the royalties they receive from their patents on test kits associated with the co-discovery of the AIDS virus. The funds are granted - after selection of the proposals by scientific experts chosen by the founders - to applications submitted by national AIDS control programs and public or private educational and research organizations.
Applications must present actual opportunities to enhance the progress in AIDS prevention, especially through training and educational programs for health professionals in developing countries. The World Aids Foundation welcomes applications that originate from developing countries and that involve collaboration with scientists of industrialized countries.
Among the many projects selected and funded by the World Aids Foundation since 1989, are programs related to short-term, in-country training for clinicians, allied health professionals and technicians, awards intended to facilitate the training of national experts, highly focused workshops that enhance the scientific process and transfer knowledge needed in the effort against HIV infections and AIDS.
Among others, one may point out an international workshop on laboratory AIDS training and epidemiological aspects of AIDS held in Brazzaville (1989) ; clinical and laboratory AIDS training for physicians in Romania (1991) ; microbiological diagnosis of tuberculosis in AIDS patients in Peru (1993) ; multidisciplinary approach of the emergence of AIDS in South-East Asia (1994) ; prevention of perinatal HIV transmission in Brazil (1998).
Out of the thirty-two new programs are :
· Program Education, health and opportunities of integration for refugees in Niger ;
· HIV Prevention among abused women in South Africa ;
· Organization of training courses devoted to south/south exchange of experience and thematic workshops on organization management and family approach of treatments in West Africa ;
· Education programs for children and adolescents for the prevention of AIDS in Venezuela…
Since its inception, the World Aids Foundation has financed more than 250 programs amounting to an aggregate of US$ 20 Million and an amount of about US.$ 2.3 Million will be allocated to the thirty two new programs.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Contact :
Institut Pasteur Press Office : Tél : 33 (0)1 45 68 81 46 - Email
: presse@pasteur.fr