New £63m Africa Health Research Institute announced

A new interdisciplinary research institute in South Africa to fight tuberculosis (TB), HIV and related diseases has today been announced, following a merger between two leading research institutions, with UCL as a key academic partner. The new organisation, the Africa Health Research Institute, is located at the heart of South Africa's TB and HIV co-epidemic. It combines the Africa Centre for Population Health's detailed population data from over 100 000 participants with the KwaZulu-Natal Research Institute for TB-HIV's (K-RITH's) basic science, experimental medicine and world-class laboratory facilities. The new venture is made possible through £63m in grants from Wellcome Trust and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), with UCL (University College London) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as significant academic partners. The Africa Health Research Institute's interdisciplinary 'population to laboratory - and back to population? approach to addressing the TB and HIV co-epidemic comes at a critical moment. Despite advances in antiretroviral therapy and talk of the 'end of Aids', HIV and HIV-related TB remain devastating diseases - with TB among the leading causes of death in South Africa. The province of KZN has the highest HIV burden, while TB is responsible for more than 14% of all deaths here.