The Dutch government ends support for a research and training on AIDS 10 years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, leaving its laboratories and scientists in limbo. It is not known if another funder resume the tab.
The Ethiopian-Netherlands AIDS Research Project (ENARP) was established in 1993 to train Ethiopian researchers and to lay the foundations for possible vaccine trials. Towards this objective, the project followed the epidemiology of HIV infections in the region in the next two cohorts of factory area workers, documenting the number and type of HIV infection, as well as the evolution of the disease in members of the infected cohort.
But the Dutch government, which has spent about $ 1 million a year on the project, decided to focus on family planning and HIV prevention. Last year, an external review praised the training program dozens of scientists and technicians and build new laboratories, but criticized for problems with the design of cohort studies - partly because too few members were infected. Reina Buijs of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Ethiopian officials agreed with the change of priority.
The loss of the center is a blow to those who had hoped to carry out vaccine trials in Ethiopia, said Jose Esparza, coordinator of the initiative vaccine against HIV World Health Organization, UNAIDS . "This is one of the few sites in Africa where efficacy trials could be made, where [researchers] have built trust with the community," he said. Project leader Eduard Sanders said he does not know what will happen to the infrastructure or the patients who were followed. another outside agency could fund the work, he said, "if the Ethiopian government decided such projects are what they want."
Related Sites
Summary of a notice of ENARP
A PowerPoint presentation describing the project
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