8th December, 2011
AMREF @ ICASA Day 4
The continued devastation HIV and AIDS, especially in Africa, provide an impetus to promote research and development strategies to combat the epidemic.
A special session at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa yesterday, chaired by AMREF Director General Dr Teguest Guerma, focused on the significance of biomedical research conducted in Africa towards the African response to HIV and AIDS, and strategies to strengthen it.
Panelists in the discussion were renowned researcher and bacteriology virologist Prof Souleymane Mboup, co-discoverer of the HIV-2 virus and AMREF Board member; Dr Thomas Nyirenda, South-South Networking and Capacity Development Manager of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership; and Prof Zvi Bentwich, Director of the NALA Foundation and Centre for Emerging Tropical Diseases and AIDS. Dr John Nkengasong, Assistant Director of the CDC’s laboratory programme co-chaired the session.
Opening the discussion, Dr Guerma noted that their biomedical research had made a crucial contribution to the fight against HIV and AIDS, including discovery of the virus, and important interventions like prevention of mother-to-child transmission, anti-retroviral treatment, highly active anti-retroviral treatment, male circumcision and microbicides. Yet, although African scientists and institutions had made significant contributions to HIV and AIDS investigations in collaboration with international institutions, there is still ample opportunity to further develop biomedical research that is specifically targeted towards HIV and AIDS in Africa.
Click on the image below to view a slideshow on the ICASA conference
Dr Teguest Guerma AMREF Director General chairs a special session on HIV and biomedical research in Africa. She is flanked by Dr Mboup, left, and co-chair Dr Nkengasong as Dr Bentwich makes his presentation
Dr Mboup pointed out that Africa has the highest rates of prevalence and incidence of HIV and AIDS, which called for HIV prevention trials in Africa, with Africa-led studies.
Panelists cited several obstacles to development of biomedical research in Africa, including lack of infrastructure, limited numbers of researchers, low financial incentives for conducting research, brain drain as researchers found lucrative employment in the west, slow capacity building for research and total reliance on outside sources for funding.
Several recommendations were made for the way forward, including increasing numbers of highly trained and skilled researchers who will lead globally competitive, collaborative health research; well-equipped and enabling environments with incentives to stimulate the contributions and sustain the efforts of African researchers; investment in research to bring about greater returns than the cost of research programmes; and long-term planning and investment.
