The Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, based in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, is to receive approximately £15 million over five years from the Wellcome Trust.

Professor Marie-Louise Newell, Director of the Africa Centre, and colleagues will use the funding to focus on improving the health status of people in the area. In particular they will be addressing the problem of HIV infection: one in five people in the local community is HIV positive, a problem compounded by poverty, migration and lack of access to effective treatments.

Key research questions will include how communities, households and individuals are affected by simultaneous epidemics of HIV, sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis, and how best to deliver HIV-related healthcare in a rural low-income, resource-poor setting. The researchers will extend their studies to the over-50s, a vastly under-researched group.

The Africa Centre will also play an important role in monitoring and evaluating the Anti-Retroviral Treatment Programme for HIV, which is currently being rolled out across the continent. The Centre has created Africa's most comprehensive demographic surveillance system, putting it in a strong position to study in detail the long-term impact of HIV and antiretroviral treatments on individuals and communities.

Opened in May 2002 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the Africa Centre is a research collaboration between the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the South African Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust.

Image: 'Even the ribbons are different', Stevie Taylor; Wellcome Images

External links

• Africa Centre