USAID Awards $60M Grant To Researchers In Kenya, Indiana For HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment Program

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 22 Nov 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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USAID on Monday in Nairobi, Kenya, announced that it has awarded a $60 million, five-year grant to support a program developed by the Indiana University School of Medicine and Moi University to fight HIV/AIDS in Kenya, the Indianapolis Star reports. The Academic Model for the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS, or AMPATH, provides care to about 52,000 HIV-positive people in Kenya. The program also will receive an additional $6 million over the five-year grant period from the IU School of Medicine (Rudavsky/Lee, Indianapolis Star, 11/20).

The goal of the new grant is to expand AMPATH to provide care to an additional 150,000 Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS by 2012 and provide antiretroviral drug access to at least 70,000 people. The grant also seeks to curb the spread of HIV through home-based counseling and testing in communities served by 19 facilities. In addition, AMPATH hopes to strengthen and expand tuberculosis control, as well as assist 20,000 orphans and vulnerable children within the first two years of the grant.

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"USAID made the grant to the AMPATH program because of its success in developing and implementing treatment and prevention programs in Kenya for the past decade," Henrietta Fore -- administrator, director of foreign assistance and undersecretary for management at USAID -- said. Robert Einterz, co-founder of the IU-Moi partnership and AMPATH, said, "I am proud that our government is making such a dramatic commitment to saving the lives of people suffering from HIV/AIDS." He added, "Now, along with our Kenyan partners, we look forward to moving beyond this grant to pursue our groundbreaking mission of home-based counseling and testing and expand beyond HIV to tackle maternal and infant mortality" (IU School of Medicine release, 11/19).

Kenyan Health Minister Paul Sang said he hopes that "more people, especially children, will have access to antiretroviral treatment" because of the grant. With support from the U.S., the number of people with access to antiretrovirals in Kenya has increased from 3,000 in 2003 to 165,000 this year, according to Sang. He added that at least 250,000 people in the country are in need of treatment access (East African Standard/AllAfrica.com, 11/20).

Kenya is one of target countries included in the President's Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports. HIV/AIDS funding for Kenya has increased from about $92.5 million in fiscal year 2004 to $368 million in FY 2007 (AP/International Herald Tribune, 11/20).

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