Yale Univ. AIDS Research Center Establishes Office in India To Operate HIV/AIDS-Related Programs

The Yale University Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS on Thursday opened a new office in Chennai, India, at the not-for-profit organization YR Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education, India's Hindu reports (Hindu, 1/7). Three research projects will operate out of the office, including Project Parivartan, an HIV/AIDS prevention program supported by a three-year, $2.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; an antiretroviral pilot program implemented by the Tamil Nadu Care and Support Network in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society and supported by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation; and a research and training program supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center that focuses on religious and cultural factors associated with HIV secondary prevention and mental health in India (CIRA News, 1/6). Project Parivartan, which will be conducted in collaboration with CARE, will implement "structural interventions" among high-risk groups in the four southern and two northeastern states in India that have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence, according to the Hindu Business Line. "Structural interventions seek to alter social, economic, political and normative factors that make up the risk environments for HIV infection," Yale University President Richard Levin, who last week led a 12-member delegation on a tour of India, said (Hindu Business Line, 1/7). The overall goal of the Parivartan Project is to reduce HIV risk among high-risk populations, including commercial sex workers, truck drivers and injection drug users, according to CIRA News (CIRA News, 1/6). Levin said that Yale's work in India is "powerfully important" because it could "save and enrich human lives," according to the Hindu (Hindu, 1/7).