New affiliation formed to accelerate nation's progress in fighting HIV/AIDS

New Affiliation Will Advance HIV Research and Policy Agenda

Two leading institutions in public health and health policy are joining forces to accelerate the nation's progress in fighting HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and tuberculosis in Washington – the Forum for Collaborative HIV Research and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.

Building on more than a decade of identifying and addressing emerging issues in the prevention, care, and treatment of people affected by HIV/AIDS, the Forum is now part of the University of California (UC), Berkeley School of Public Health and has set up new facilities at the UC campus in Washington, DC. While not changing the Forum's mission, this new affiliation allows the Forum to take advantage of existing partnerships with faculty and researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health to frame the issues and help set the research strategy in HIV/AIDS, co-infection and advancing universal HIV testing.  

"We anticipate our affiliation with the UC Berkeley School of Public Health will be mutually enriching across many dimensions," said Dr. Veronica Miller, executive director of the Forum. "The School has expressed full support for our research, policy and educational missions concerning HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis, which bring an extra dimension to the school's own research and educational mission." Dr. Miller will be a visiting professor at the School during the transition.

"With this partnership the School has further strengthened our ability to influence national and international health policy development," said Dr. Stephen Shortell, dean of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. "The Forum strengthens our programs in infectious disease, epidemiology and health policy and will provide our students with new and exciting opportunities in the nation's capital."  

The two institutions are joining forces at a critical time in advancing HIV/AIDS research and public policy. Although important progress has been made in lowering the annual number of AIDS-related deaths, more than 1 million Americans are living with HIV/AIDS and an estimated 56,000 are infected with HIV every year. To change these statistics, the Forum is planning a number of major initiatives to advance the research agenda and spur national momentum toward universal testing for HIV. This includes hosting the 2010 National Summit on HIV Diagnosis, Prevention, and Access to Care in Washington and issuing a series of reports on the risk of coronary artery disease in patients on antiretroviral treatment, designing effective treatments for hepatitis C, and pre-exposure HIV prophylaxis, which includes developing a plan for combined data analysis.

The Forum is also working with industry and global health partners on impediments to monitoring of risks in current usage of antiretrovirals in resource-limited settings and assessing evolving clinical trial design for experimental antiretrovirals.

"The School of Public Health and the HIV Forum already share a history of commitment to overcoming major threats to public health through the deployment of science, partnerships and policy," said Dr. Judith Aberg, associate professor of infectious disease at New York University School of Medicine and co-chair of the Forum's Executive Committee.