Kenya and Nigeria recently received grants from the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) to improve laboratory services based in Kenya and improve the biosecurity infrastructure based in Nigeria.
The grants amounted to $13 million for Kenya’s laboratories and $10 million for Nigeria’s biosecurity infrastructure.
The grants are part of President Barack Obama’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is designed to further build the long-term relationship between IHV and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“IHV continues to serve as a true global leader who can effectively partner with varying foreign governments and public-private sector entities to combat infectious disease,” Robert Gallo, the Homer & Martha Gudelsky Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Director of the Institute of Human Virology, said. “IHV’s Clinical Division under the leadership of my colleague and fellow IHV co-founder, Dr. Robert Redfield, works to advance global public health for the betterment of mankind and to save countless lives.”
The funds will also advance scientific expertise in creating programs that target viruses that are important in terms of biosecurity, such as HIV.
“Kenya and Nigeria each have a high burden of HIV, and remain at significant risk for additional epidemics which are dependent on successful biosecurity infrastructures that these awards will help provide,” Redfield said.
