Though they are separated by an ocean, Providence locals are affecting the lives of some Mali residents through involvement in the Global Alliance to Immunize Against AIDS Vaccine Foundation, an organization geared toward finding an effective and affordable vaccine for HIV.
GAIA VF, founded in 2001 by Adjunct Associate Professor of Medicine Anne DeGroot, aims to "promote the development of a globally relevant, globally accessible HIV vaccine that will be distributed on a not-for-profit basis in the developing world," according to the organization's Web site.
GAIA VF has campus branches at Brown and Boston University to extend its work to college students.
The group's African base is located in Sikoro, a village in Bamako, Mali. There, GAIA VF has set up a program called Prevention Now, which is designed to stop transmission of HIV from pregnant mothers to their children. "We provide one simple drug at the critical point at the time of delivery" to prevent the spread of the disease, DeGroot said.
In addition to Prevention Now, GAIA VF has many other projects in the works for HIV prevention in Mali. DeGroot and GAIA VF are working on the Hope Clinic, a new community clinic which would be Mali's first addressing HIV.
"There are 180,000 people in Mali with HIV, (and there are only) 8,000 on treatment right now, because they don't have access to the clinics, mostly concentrated in the cities," DeGroot said.
DeGroot has also been working on the GAIA vaccine, a new HIV vaccine which was created in her lab at Brown. She licensed the drug to EpiVax, a pharmaceutical company she founded and leads as chief executive officer, for development and testing. The vaccine is designed to recognize various strains of HIV. "It's going to work wherever you try to use it, wherever you go," DeGroot said.
According to DeGroot, the different strands of HIV are like the different dialects of a language, and standard vaccines can't combat all strains. Her vaccine, however, uses a computer program to recognize all "pieces" of the virus and thus is able to combat all the strains, she said.
DeGroot stresses that her company is not creating this vaccine in hopes of earning a profit. "EpiVax is committed to making it a not-for-profit project," DeGroot said. According to the GAIA VF Web site, "No other groups have proposed to develop a globally relevant HIV vaccine; most are working on country-specific approaches." The Web site also notes that DeGroot's vaccine will be one of the only no-cost drugs available on the market.
Madeline DiLorenzo '08, who spent several weeks over the summer working for GAIA VF in Mali, said her time in the community was a unique experience. "They know we want to help," DiLorenzo said. "Malian society is very formal. We had to go through many channels - like the chiefs of the village, director of HIV in Mali - you want to be very careful, (and you) don't want to step on any toes."
DiLorenzo worked on developing a curriculum for an HIV-prevention program during her time in Mali. "The woman I worked with - she actually has HIV - we worked together to train peer educators," DiLorenzo said. "Many people won't listen to you unless (you) have HIV. They see her living her life (as) a symbol of hope."
GAIA VF plans to not only focus on HIV prevention in the community but to also provide vaccinations against other diseases for the people there. "Once we have the clinic, we can have the infrastructure, (and then we) can bring in all the other technologies, and test it out in the community," DeGroot said.
"I hope that our clinic is going to be a model for community-based care, a place where Brown students can have experience doing clinical care in a community," she added. "I'm very proud of what we've done in that community. There has been an HIV conference, where all HIV physicians in Mali get together, and the Prevention Now program has rolled out to 10 more community centers."
Back in Providence, the on-campus group focuses on AIDS awareness and sponsors activities such as free HIV testing, said DiLorenzo, who is a member of the group. She added that she hopes these programs will generate awareness, adding that "90 percent of people in the U.S. don't get tested."
GAIA VF also plans to increase HIV/AIDS awareness in Providence through education outreach and providing free HIV testing. "In the past we've done HIV testing on World AIDS day, and we're going to start a peer education program that we're going to roll out in the spring in high schools in Providence," DeGroot said. "We also hand out condoms. We don't go out anywhere without a bag of condoms."
As part of programming for World AIDS Week, which starts Wednesday, GAIA is working to coordinate a variety of events, including an appearance by Jeffrey Sachs, director of the United Nations Millennium Project and the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of "The End of Poverty."
