Cape Town — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal announced plans today to establish a new center for research on the interrelated epidemics of HIV and tuberculosis, two diseases that go hand in hand across sub-Saharan Africa, with devastating consequences, but have hitherto been studied mainly in isolation from one another.
The new multimillion-dollar KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for Tuberculosis and HIV will bring together in Durban, South Africa, key researchers on both diseases, and in the long term aims to build up an advanced doctoral-research program in this emerging field, said Peter Bruns, vice president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, a U.S.-based philanthropy.
“The problem is that one group of people were studying HIV by itself and another group was studying TB by itself,” Mr. Bruns said by telephone from Durban. “We know a lot about each of them separately, but not together — and they do change each other when they happen together.”
The Hughes institute has committed $60-million to the project over the next 10 years, with additional money coming from the university and from LIFE Lab, a biotechnology center backed by the South African government.
With an estimated 5.4 million people infected with HIV, South Africa has emerged as a global epicenter for both diseases. HIV, which attacks the immune system, appears to lay the foundation for TB to flourish as well. From 60 to 70 percent of those with HIV actually go to medical facilities because they are sick with TB, said Salim S. Abdool Karim, pro vice chancellor for research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The rise of drug-resistant forms of TB has raised alarm bells, particularly in this region, where those with HIV appear to be both more susceptible to drug-resistant strains and harder to diagnose.
The new institute will initially focus on four major research areas: developing more rapid and effective tests for TB, studying the characteristics of the drug-resistant strains, analyzing the immune system’s response to TB, and studying the recurrence patterns of TB in HIV-positive patients. The institute has also awarded more than $1.1-million in seed grants to a dozen American and South African scientists to pursue related research. —Megan Lindow
