AIDS research. The odd intersection of HIV and scrub typhus

Can contracting another disease help suppress HIV? Researchers report intriguing new findings suggesting that a disease called scrub typhus may offer novel leads to developing anti-HIV treatments and vaccines.     

Ground zero: AIDS research in Africa

More and more European and North American AIDS researchers are coming to sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to a whopping 70% of all HIV-infected people. These investigators are collaborating with local researchers on projects that aim to slow both HIV's spread and the course of disease in the millions already infected. But most African countries--constrained by limited resources, weak infrastructures, social mores, and political inaction--have grave difficulties translating research insights into prevention and treatment strategies.     

Is AIDS in Africa a distinct disease?

In Africa, opportunistic infections, transmission patterns, and viral subtypes differ from what is seen in the AIDS epidemics of the United States and Europe, yet 2 decades into the epidemic, AIDS researchers have only a shaky handle on the fundamental question: What accounts for these differences? The answers have potentially important implications for both prevention and treatment strategies.     

Balancing the collaboration equation

Most African countries can't afford to support much research themselves, so the vast majority of studies of HIV/AIDS are being conducted in collaboration with scientists from the developed world. These partnerships have brought major benefits, but inherent inequalities can cause tensions and require constant give-and-take from both sides. An inside look at three veteran marriages between African AIDS researchers and foreign colleagues illustrates the benefits--and stresses--of partnership.     

Profile. Preventing infections with today's tools

With no vaccine in sight powerful enough to halt the spread of HIV, Africa is left with one strategy to combat the epidemic: prevention. The University of Manitoba's Frank Plummer, who oversees a large research collaboration in Nairobi, Kenya, says his group has identified a half-dozen effective interventions to lower HIV transmission rates, but "the scale at which they're implemented is tiny."     

Profile: McIntyre and Gray have a will and a way

At the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital here, where HIV infects more than 20% of the 17,000 pregnant women who give birth here each year, pediatrician Glenda Gray and obstetrician James McIntyre aggressively try to help HIV-infected pregnant women stop the virus from infecting their babies.     

Profile: a native son comes home to help

In December 1996, Omu Anzala returned to Kenya after completing his Ph.D. work in Canada on HIV's interactions with the immune system to work with a collaborative AIDS research project started by researchers from his university and the University of Manitoba. Now the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative has funded Anzala and his collaborators to fashion an AIDS vaccine based on a strain of HIV circulating in Kenya.