Institute, to create the Center for International AIDS Support, Training, and

Evaluation (CIASTE).  The partnership also will include the University of

Washington's Center for AIDS and STDs through its International Training and

Education Center on HIV.

"CIASTE has been established to assist the CDC's Global AIDS Program in a

variety of AIDS prevention, research, educational and treatment activities in

resource-constrained countries that have been hard hit by HIV/AIDS. The

consortium will lead teams in four component areas-training, technical

assistance, operations research, and monitoring/evaluation-and will draw

support from five affiliated partners," said CIASTE's principal investigator,

George W. Rutherford, MD, UCSF professor of preventive medicine and

epidemiology and interim director of UCSF's Institute for Global Health (IGH).

The five affiliated institutional partners are the California Department of

Health Services, Children's Hospital and Research Center at Oakland, San

Francisco Department of Public Health, Stanford University School of Medicine,

and UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  Three regional coordinating centers

will be set up in Brazil, India, and Zimbabwe to assist the CDC Global AIDS

Program, which currently has programs in twenty-four African, Asian, and

Central/South American countries.

"This is a chance for academic institutions to bring their research expertise

to bear on critical public health programs being established by CDC in some of

the places worst hit by HIV/AIDS in the world. For instance, UCSF's IGH

recently did the worldwide evaluation of the 'Roll Back Malaria Initiative',

and UCSF's AIDS Research Institute has a strong track record of HIV/AIDS

prevention research in Brazil, Zimbabwe, India, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China,"

said Rutherford.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Global AIDS Program exists to

help prevent HIV infection, improve care and support and build capacity to

address the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. GAP provides financial and technical

assistance through partnerships with communities, governments, and national and

international entities working in resource-constrained countries.

The Institute for Global Health is a joint initiative of UCSF and UC Berkeley,

founded in 1999 to improve health and increase access to effective and

affordable health services in all countries. The IGH maintains a small core

staff in San Francisco and works with prominent scientists and leaders from

around the world to conduct research, provide high-level training, and

influence health policies in the public and private sectors.

The AIDS Research Institute coordinates and integrates all AIDS research

activities at the University of California, San Francisco. ARI stimulates

innovation and supports interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at all aspects of

the epidemic domestically and around the world. ARI houses hundreds of

scientists and dozens of programs throughout UCSF and affiliated labs and

institutions, making ARI one of the largest AIDS research entities in the

world.

The University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD, established in July 1989,

provides patient care, research, training and education, and international

assistance for HIV/AIDS and STD programming. The Center, under the direction of

King K. Holmes, MD, PhD, is administered by the UW and maintains formal

collaborative relationships with other institutions, including UCSF, and

partners in many countries. The Center was designated a "World Health

Organization Collaborating Center for AIDS and STD" in 1995, the only such

collaborating center in the Western Hemisphere.