Durban - HIV/Aids research in Kwa-Zulu-Natal has been given a high-profile boost, with the announcement on Tuesday that a Nobel laureate would be coming on board.
The Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA (Caprisa) said Professor Françoise Barré-Sinoussi would be joining its scientific advisory board for three years.
Barré-Sinoussi, the director of the retroviral infections unit at the Institute Pasteur in France, discovered the retrovirus HIV in 1983.
It is hoped her appointment will help fast-track HIV/Aids prevention - particularly among young women who are still the most vulnerable.
Her groundbreaking find led to the first diagnostic tests for HIV and has been the basis for the development of antiretroviral drugs and HIV vaccines.
Speaking at Caprisa’s annual two-day conference which ends on Wednesday, Barré-Sinoussi, said the decision to join the centre was easy despite her many commitments.
“Caprisa is internationally recognised and is not about science for the sake of science but to deliver preventative treatment for the most strongly affected - women.”
The 40-year science veteran said she believed a cure was possible. “I am always optimistic that one day one could stop treatment and the virus remain in control and not be transmitted…”
Regarding the total eradication of HIV/Aids, Barré-Sinoussi was not necessarily pessimistic, but realistic about the possibility.
She emphasised the need for social science and humanities research in conjunction with biomedical research to deal with issues such as culture, women’s empowerment and behavioural change which were contributing factors to the continued prevalence of HIV in young women in South Africa.
This was echoed by Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor, who said understanding what people were willing to do to protect themselves from HIV was the key to solving the problem.
Pandor had earlier announced that Caprisa and the University of KwaZulu-Natal had been chosen as a Centre of Excellence in HIV prevention.
This accolade came with a R9.3 million National Research Foundation grant. The centre’s Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim said this would allow their work to be fast-tracked.
“A Centre of Excellence is set up through a peer review process, so this is an affirmation of the excellence and the importance of what we do,” she said.
Last year, Abdool Karim was awarded the TWAS-Lenovo Science Prize, which came with a $100 000 (R1.1m) prize.
Her husband and Caprisa director, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, also received $100 000, which came with the African Union Kwame Nkrumah Scientific Award.
Yesterday, they announced they were donating R1m towards establishing the Lectureship Fund for Eminent Visiting Scientists.
The Medical Research Foundation has matched this amount. The fund will initially host two annual lectures in paediatrics and public health - the Hoosen Coovadia and the Mervyn Susser and Zena Stein lectureships for international academics in South Africa.
Naming the lectureships in their honour “engenders a culture of exceptional science intermingled with a commitment to human rights…” on the continent, Quarraisha said.
Daily News