Pangaea has provided fiscal, administrative and project management support for the creation of the new Infectious Diseases Institute (“IDI”) at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, which opened on October 20, 2004.The IDI is a state of the art HIV/AIDS clinic, research and training center serving Uganda and all of the East African region. For more information, contact Carl Whitaker at cwhitaker@pgaf.org.

New Infectious Diseases Institute at Makerere University to Enhance HIV/AIDS Treatment and Training in East Africa

Kampala, Uganda, October 20 — The Infectious Diseases Institute (“IDI”) at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda was officially opened and dedicated on October 20, 2004. The IDI, which is housed in a new, state of the art facility at the School of Medicine on the Makerere campus, will treat HIV/AIDS patients, train physicians, conduct research, and develop models of HIV/AIDS care that will have broad application for all of Africa.

The IDI is the product of a unique, public-private partnership between Makerere University, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, the Academic Alliance Foundation for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa, Pfizer Foundation and Pfizer Inc, which has so far provided $15 million for construction of the clinic and support of its programs.

The IDI will serve as both an HIV/AIDS clinic, serving thousands of patients every month and a regional HIV clinical training center for physicians and nurses. Its founders, the Ugandan and North American physicians of the Academic Alliance for AIDS Care and Prevention in Africa (“Academic Alliance”), believe that the IDI will serve as a model for the treatment and prevention of AIDS in a resource-limited environment.

Pat Christen, President of the Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, commented, “Pangaea’s role was to ensure that the project was completed on time and within budget and to establish the administrative and fiscal systems necessary for the IDI programs to run in a high-quality and reliable manner. Basic project management skills were key in ensuring that the vision of the partners was turned into sustainable reality on the ground at the IDI.”

The creation of the IDI was first announced in 2001 in response to a shortage of adequately trained HIV/AIDS medical staff and a growing need for improved treatment of people living with AIDS in Uganda and throughout East Africa. The IDI began offering limited services from a small clinic at Mulago Hospital in Kampala in 2002 and has treated more than 8,000 patients since that time. The new center will offer services five days a week and will be able to treat 300 patients a day, a three-fold increase in capacity.

Training activities also began in 2002 in temporary facilities. To date, more than 250 physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals from 13 countries in Africa have received training at the IDI in the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS through a partnership of local and international HIV/AIDS specialists, including leading experts from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. The IDI will train over 200 doctors and other healthcare professionals each year.

In addition to providing oversight of the construction itself, Pangaea staff members have been working to build necessary financial, legal, administrative, and managerial structures to support the development and successful rollout of the IDI ’s training and treatment programs. Once the facility is complete and the ongoing IDI governance, management, and administrative systems are in place, the facility and operations will be turned over to Makerere University.

Makerere University is known as one of the leading research and educational institutions in Africa. Dr. Nelson K. Sewankambo, Dean, Faculty of Medicine at Makerere University said, “The establishment of the IDI is a significant milestone for the university. This project represents the first infrastructure investment at the medical school in 35 years.”

That the IDI came into being in just three years is a tribute to the vision of the doctors of the Academic Alliance, Pfizer’s willingness to provide flexible funding for the project, and Pangaea’s solid project management support. All three factors were essential to ensure that the IDI will have a significant impact on the AIDS pandemic in Africa for many years to come.

The Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation is an affiliate of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and was established to broaden access to HIV antiretroviral drugs in the developing world and to support the development of an effective HIV vaccine. To learn more about Pangaea visit www.pgaf.org and www.sfaf.org.