Studies Linked to the Evolving HIV Epidemic in South Africa: Informing the CAPRISA Scientific Agenda

Abstract

Although the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) was established in 2002, its mission and goal was informed by research undertaken by the founding members in the decade prior to its establishment. Population-based surveys undertaken between 1990 and 1992 highlighted the emerging but rapidly evolving HIV epidemic in South Africa and the age-sex difference in HIV infection with 15–24-year-old young women having four to six-fold more HIV compared to their peers and the role of migration in enhancing HIV acquisition rates. This chapter describes how the emerging and evolving generalised HIV epidemic in South Africa through five critical stages informed research undertaken by the founders of CAPRISA and specifically how the phase of the epidemic at the time of the establishment of CAPRISA influenced the CAPRISA scientific agenda. It describes how the science base in the region was strengthened through the Columbia University-Southern African Fogarty AIDS training programme; how successful grant-writing skills were developed; how participation in NIH/NIAID funded networks conducting clinical trials built the clinical trial experience of the CAPRISA team; and how local collaborations created a synergistic and strategic multidisciplinary team that was formalised as a consortium of five institutions in the establishment of CAPRISA.