U.S. Officials Visit CAPRISA and the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa

(Left to right) Inkosi (Chief) S. Zondi, District Health Manager May Zuma, HHS Secretary Leavitt, and CAPRISA Associate Scientific Director Quarraisha Abdool-Karim, Ph.D., light a candle to remember the victims of HIV/AIDS. Photo taken by Sandile Qwabe at the Centre for the AIDS Program Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Vulindlela South Africa. (August 22, 2007)

August 22, 2007 – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt and a delegation of senior U.S. government officials from the U.S. Departments of State (DOS) and HHS and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) visited the Centre for the AIDS Program Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) in Vulindlela, KwaZulu Natal Province, yesterday to learn about the research and community programs the center is undertaking.

Secretary Leavitt joined the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, the Honorable Mark Dybul, M.D.; the USAID Assistant Administrator for Global Health, the Honorable Kent Hill, Ph.D.; the Director of the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Julie L. Gerberding, M.D. and others on the delegation in meeting with patients and staff, and observing CAPRISA’s integration of biomedical research and prevention trials with ongoing HIV prevention, care, and support programs for HIV and tuberculosis (TB). They also met with local Zulu leaders to learn about CAPRISA’s engagement of the local community in Vulindlela, and about the community’s active participation in the program’s research and interventions.

CAPRISA, which receives funding from HHS/CDC, the HHS National Institutes of Health (NIH), and USAID, was founded in 2002 by the Universities of Natal, Cape Town, and the Western Cape in South Africa; the National Institute of Communicable Diseases of the South African Department of Health; and Columbia University in New York City. Four thousand patients seek care each month at CAPRISA.

The officials also visited the University of KwaZulu Natal Medical School in Durban, South Africa, where Secretary Leavitt explained to students his responsibilities as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and shared with them his impressions of the sites he had visited in South Africa. He also expressed to the students America’s commitment to working with African governments and other partners in meeting challenges such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and training health workers.

The university, the product of a merger of two institutions in 2004, receives support from 157 donors, including significant funding from the HHS/NIH, HHS/CDC, and USAID.

For more information:

• Photo gallery of Secretary Leavitt's trip to Africa
• Secretary Leavitt's blog entry on South Africa

Last revised: August 30, 2007