HISA 2008 conference
When:June 17-20, 2008
Where:Durban, South Africa
The HISA 2008 conference is organised by the partnership of SAHIA and the KZN Department of Health. This event will also host the annual OSHCA as well as the OpenMRS meetings.
For more information visit the website http://www.hisa.co.za.
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Microbicides 2008
When:February 24-27, 2008
Where:Hotel Ashok, New Delhi, India
The biannual international Microbicides 2008 Conference will be held at New Delhi - the historical and beautiful national capital of India- from Sunday February 24th to Wednesday 27th, 2008. It is for the first time that the meeting would be held in the Asian region. The earlier meetings were held at Washington DC in 2000, Antwerp in 2002, London in 2004, and Cape Town in 2006
For more information visit the website http://www.microbicides2008.com.
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3rd Priorities in AIDS Care and Treatment Conference
When:October 1-3, 2007
Where:Santon Convention Center, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Perinatal HIV Research Unit (PHRU), established in 1996, is one of the largest AIDS research centres in Africa. The early research focus on prevention of mother to child transmission has expanded and PHRU now leads studies on many different aspects of HIV prevention, treatment and care including medical and social research.
For more information visit the website http://www.phru.co.za.
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Challenges of Global Vaccine Development (T1)
Part of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series, Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust
When: October 8-13, 2007
Where: Cape Town Conference Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
Organizers:Margaret Liu, Paul-Henri Lambert and Sir Gustav Nossal
Meeting Summary
Despite the tremendous impact of vaccines to save countless lives, significant scientific and technical barriers exist that limit both their effectiveness against many diseases and their utilization, resulting in millions of needless deaths and substantial morbidity particularly in the developing world. Even with the large increase of our understanding of host immune responses, the sequencing of pathogen genomes, and other technological advances, important hurdles remain for developing and deploying vaccines for a variety of diseases. The goals of this meeting will be to bring together scientists, physicians and students from the developed and developing world to discuss the advances in (1) understanding the generation of effective systemic and mucosal immunity at a cellular and organ system level, (2) new technologies for prophylactic and therapeutic immunization, including those useful for resource-poor settings, (3) understanding the unique requirements to stimulate immunity in early childhood, (4) pre-clinical models, and (5) correlates of protection.
For more information visit the website http://www.keystonesymposia.org/T1.
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For more information visit sa-aidsconference.com.
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HIV/AIDS in South Africa - Abdool Karim S and Abdool Karim Q (eds)
 This definitive text covers all aspects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, from basic science to medicine, sociology,
economics and politics. It has been written by a highly respected team of South African HIV experts and provides a
thoroughly researched account of the epidemic in the region.
The book comprises seven sections, the first of which
describes the evolving epidemic, presents the numbers behind the epidemic, and captures the nature of the epidemic
in one of the worst affected parts of the world. This is followed by a section on the science of the virus, covering
its structure, and its diagnosis. HIV risk factors and prevention strategies, focal population groups and the impact
of AIDS in all aspects of South African life are discussed in the next four sections. The final sections look at the
treatment of HIV/AIDS, the politics of AIDS treatment, mathematical modelling to extrapolate the potential impact of
AIDS treatment and finally a discussion of the future of AIDS in South Africa.
This text has been written at an accessible
level for the general public, undergraduate and postgraduate students, healthcare providers, researchers and policymakers
in this field as well as international scholars studying AIDS in Africa.
Book order form
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The AIDS Pandemic: Impact on Science and Society - Kenneth H Mayer and HF Pizer (eds)
 The AIDS Pandemic explores the ways in which HIV/AIDS, has, and continues to transform the wide range of related
disciplines it touches.
Novel perspectives are provided by a unique panel of internationally recognized expert who
cover the unprecedented impact on AIDS on culture, demographics and politics around the world, including how it affected
the world's economy, health sciences, epidemiology and public health. This important far-reaching analysis uses the
lessons learned from a wide array of disciplines to help us understand the current status and evolution of the pandemic,
as it continues to evolve.
This book is indispensable for a professional audience from a wide range of backgrounds, including medicine, science,
public health, the law, government, and business whose work interfaces with HIV/AIDS, as well as students in higher education.
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Book by Dr Catherine Campbell: Letting Them Die - How HIV/AIDS Prevention Programmes Often Fail
- Why do people knowingly engage in sexual behaviour that could lead to a slow and painful premature death?
- Why do the best-intentioned HIV-prevention programmes often have so little impact?
 A new book entitled "Letting them die - why HIV/AIDS
intervention programmes fail", written by social psychologist Dr Catherine Campbell, addresses these questions.
Dr Campbell is a Reader at the London School of Economics and a Research Fellow at HIVAN, (the Centre for HIV/AIDS
Networking, based at the University of Natal in Durban). The book's title is derived from South African satirist
Pieter-Dirk Uys' comment that: "In the old South Africa we killed people. Now we're just letting them die."
The book is an examination of the social constructs and unique contexts of sexuality, participation and social change,
compiled through detailed study of the processes yielded by a large-scale participatory HIV/AIDS intervention strategy
undertaken in Summertown, a small mining township in the South African province of Gauteng, over a three-year period
during the late 1990s.
In her observation of the process of the Summertown Project, which focused on limiting the spread of HIV through a
multi-layered, well-resourced, community-led intervention programme and the promotion of partnerships and alliances
between community stakeholders, Campbell led the documentation of responses from participants amongst four groups of
people: migrant mineworkers, commercial sex-workers, young people and a diverse array of community stakeholders committed
to implementing this complex and ambitious intervention programme.
The book presents the history and goals of the Summertown Project, the theoretical framework within which the research
was evaluated, the distillation of the documentation from the interviews and focus group sessions, and the consolidation
of the findings into what manifestly emerged as a mobilisation strategy with "less than optimal results". The concluding
chapter confronts these findings, and, drawing on social psychology, sociology, anthropology and social medicine, evaluates
the elements and dynamics of power-bases inherent in the seen and unseen structures of impoverished communities struggling
to address effects of the epidemic in South Africa.
"Letting them die" is a forceful presentation of the earliest and most comprehensively researched critique of the
participatory community development approach to HIV prevention. It also contains recommendations that reshape and
invigorate the approach so as to promote health-enabling community contexts, and to strengthen social capital so that
survivors of the epidemic might reconstruct their lives with some prospect of success.
Published by The International African Institute in association with James Currey (Oxford) / Indiana University Press
(Bloomington) / Double Storey Books (a Juta Company, Cape Town). 2003
The book is available at all leading bookstores in South Africa, including Adams Campus Bookshop at the University of
Natal in Durban (Telephone 031- 261 2320), or can be ordered directly from the publisher, c/o Kathy Pittaway on the
following email address: kpittaway@juta.co.za.
To view the author's research profile and publications, visit the following webpage address:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/socialPsychology/whosWho/campbell.htm.
Issued on behalf of Dr Catherine Campbell by:
HIVAN Media Office
University of Natal
Durban 4041
Contact: Judith King, Media and Communications Officer
Tel: (031) 260 2975
e-mail: kingj3@nu.ac.za
Website: www.hivan.org.za
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Stanford-South Africa Biomedical Informatics Training Program
This collaboration between Stanford University and South Africa consists of three programmes:
- Short courses presented by Stanford Faculty here at the University of the Western Cape
- MSc/PhD Traineeships in Biomedical Informatics
Visiting Scholarships to Stanford
Course Schedule (pdf)
For more information visit our website
http://stanford.sanbi.ac.za or contact Judith Jansen (judith@sanbi.ac.za or phone +27 21 959 3139).
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NIAID Small International Grants
Small Research (RO3) Grants for International Research in Infectious Diseases pilot or feasibility studies,
travel and meetings to establish collaborations, and activities associated with writing a research grant
proposal. Clinical trials will not be supported under this program. This program is intended to complement
NIAID's other international research programs by expanding the number and types of collaborations and
research projects at these sites.
Applications may be submitted by eligible foreign institutions. Eligibility requires a per capita gross
national product (GNP) less than U.S. $5,000. Foreign investigators who do not currently serve as Principle
Investigators on R01/PO1 or U01/U19 grants are particularly encouraged to apply. Applications that extend extramural
research programs at overseas institutions where NIAID has significant investments either through extramural research
grants, cooperative agreements or contracts (ICTDR, TMRC, TBRU, CIPRA, HVTN, HPTN) or through the Division of
Intramural Research (ICER) are particularly encouraged.
This initiative will accept applications for R03 Small Grants. Support will be limited to 3 years with no more
than $50,000 in direct costs per year. Detailed instructions for the preparation and submission of R03 applications
can be found at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-02-038.html.
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