BACKGROUND               last updated April 9, 2005

The Johns Hopkins Fogarty AITRP (Hopkins AITRP) began in 1989 as the Fogarty Epidemiology of AIDS International Training & Research Program .  Dr. Harvey Fischman was the first PI/Director and led the program during its first 8 years.  In 1997, Chris Beyrer, MD, MPH, took over as PI/Director. The Hopkins AITRP is located in the department of its Principal Investigator, Dr. Beyrer, the Department of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health of the Johns Hopkins University.  However, it is a campus-wide program involving faculty and trainees in departments in both the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the School of Medicine.  Primary departments participating in the program are: Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Health Policy & Management, International Health, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology and Population & Family Health Sciences in the Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Departments of Clinical Investigation, Medicine, Pathology, Pediatrics and OB/GYN in the School of Medicine.  Campus-wide centers such as the Center for Immunization Research (CIR), the Center for Clinical Trials (CCT), the Center for AIDS Research (CFAR), the Center for Clinical Global Health Education (CCGHE), the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, the Center for TB Research, The Bioethics Institute, and the Center for Communications Programs (CCP) serve as resources for faculty and training programs. The Johns Hopkins University Fogarty AIDS International Training & Research Program (JHU AITRP) is now in its fourth five-year funding cycle, Years 16-20.  Year 16 began June 1, 2003.

HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the gravest infectious disease threat to human health and stability in modern times.  Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia bear the greatest burdens of the epidemic, which threatens individuals, their families, communities, and the future health, development, and security of states and regions.  After nearly 20 years of effort, we still do not have a cure, a vaccine, or an effective microbicide.  While there have been successes in HIV prevention in developing countries, the epidemic, far from being contained, continues to expand globally, and now threatens enormous populations in China, India, and Russia, key partners for our program.  Research into new prevention technologies, including vaccines, effective treatment regimens, and improved deployment of existing approaches, remains of central importance to eventual control of AIDS.  However, the scientific and public health questions which require the most urgent answers are increasingly difficult to investigate in developed world settings.  International collaborative HIV/AIDS research, and the training needed for developing country scientists to lead that research, remains an urgent global priority and a public health necessity. 

Collaborative Research and Partner Countries

From its inception the Hopkins AITRP has endeavored to provide training and research support to developing country partners in training relevant to the growing global HIV/AIDS research agenda.  Our model has been to provide training in support of collaborative research between faculty of the Johns Hopkins Schools of Public Health and Medicine and their developing country partners, to foster lasting research partnerships, and to assist developing country scientists in establishing their own, and their countries’, capacity in independent HIV/AIDS research.  We have measured our success through scientific contributions, competitive funding awards, the impact on country responses of returning fellows, and leadership in international HIV/AIDS research on the part of our trainees. 

Our primary partner countries are:

Cameroon, Dr. Donald Burke, Dr. Nathan Wolfe
China - Dr. Hua Shan, Dr. Xiaofang Yu 
Dominican Republic - Dr. Deanna Kerrigan
Ethiopia, Dr. Andrea Ruff, Dr. Jacqueline Coberly
India-Chennai, Dr. David Celentano
India-Delhi, Dr. Michael Sweat
India-Pune, Dr. Robert Bollinger
Laos - Drs. Chris Beyrer, Dr. David Celentano, Nicole Simmons
Malawi, Dr. Taha Taha
Russia-Moscow, Dr. Chris Beyrer, Dr. Julie Stachowiak
South Africa, Dr. Chris Beyrer
Uganda-Kampala, Dr. Laura Guay
Uganda-Rakai, Dr. Ron Gray, Dr. Maria Wawer
 

Research Training Focus

In its third funding cycle, Years 11 – 15, the program expanded from its initial focus on Epidemiology to include: Behavioral Interventions and Ethnography, Substance Abuse, Ethics, Clinical Trials, Vaccine Trials, Blood Safety, HIV Associated Malignancies.  Areas of focus in the Years 16-20, are cross cutting areas such as : Ethics: Developing & Strengthening IRBs, Human Rights, Substance Abuse, Tuberculosis and Vaccine Trials.  Through three Competing Supplements, the Hopkins ATIRP will expand geographically into the Russian Federation (Russia, Tajikistan) with a focus on Substance Abuse; Cameroon with Vaccinology and a collaborative Substance Abuse program for South and Southeast Asian countries (China, India-Chennai, Lao PDR, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam) with the McFarlane Burnet Institute, Australia.   In Year 17, the Hopkins AITRP received several CIPRA supplements:

• CIPRA: South Africa (Dr. James McIntyre, PHRU, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital)
• CIPRA: Thailand (Dr. Kiat Ruxrungtham, HIV-NAT)

Fogarty Ellison