Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Initiative: About HAI: Timeline

Harvey Fineberg	1988	HAI is established by Harvard President Derek Bok, HSPH Dean Harvey Feinberg, and HMS Dean Daniel Tosteson.
		The National Institutes of Health's John E. Fogarty Foundation for International Health begins training program for students from developing countries at HAI.
		Research Discoveries: Identification of HIV antibodies in saliva, paving the way for blood-free diagnostic test; discovery of proteins for vpx and vpu that distinguish HIV-1 and HIV-2.
	1989	First meeting of the International Advisory Council.
	1990	Official partnership established with Thailand.
		Research Discovery: Identification of vpr protein of HIV-1.
	1992	Official partnership established with Tanzania.
	1994	HAI's Vaccine Think Tank series begins. This annual conference series addresses the challenge of creating HIV vaccines for worldwide use.
		Publication of "AIDS in Africa," a comprehensive AIDS reference book for public health and medical officials
HIV-2		Research Discovery: Demonstration that HIV-2 is transmitted much less efficiently than HIV-1, causes AIDS less often.
	1995	Research Discovery: Demonstration that HIV-2 can partially protect against HIV-1 infection, showing for the first time in humans that vaccine protection against HIV-1 may be possible.
Max Essex and Pres. Masire	1996	The Botswana-Harvard School of Public Health AIDS Institute Partnership for HIV Research and Education, a collaborative research and training initiative between the Government of Botswana and HAI, is formed.
	1997	HAI scientists draw attention to the importance of ethics in design of placebo-controlled trial for developing countries in The New England Journal of Medicine.
ECI Puerto Rico Team: Ric Marlink, Daniel Pimentel, Mike Johnson, Jose Morales	1998	The Enhancing Care Initiative, a five-year initiative funded by Merck and the U.S Health Resources and Services Administration, begins work with teams in Brazil, Puerto Rico, Senegal, South Africa and Thailand to enhance the care of people living with HIV and AIDS in resource-scarce countries.
	1999	Oak Foundation gives HAI $2.5 million for Southern African Research and Training Program.
		Research Discovery: HIV-1 subtypes differ in rate of disease progression.
Christine Bussman, KITSO Program Manager	2000	At the request of the Government of Botswana, the Ministry of Health and HAI establishes the KITSO AIDS Training Program ("KITSO" means "knowledge" in Setswana) in response to the expanding HIV epidemic and the lack of continuing medical education available to health professionals.
Christine Bussman, KITSO Program Manager		Thailand adopts a chemoprophylaxis regimen identified by a Harvard trial as the national standard for AIDS treatment.
		Research Discovery:Evidence that longer use of zidovidine during pregnancy reduces HIV infection rate in infants. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
		Official partnership established with Nigeria.
Yichen Lu in China		Principle Research Scientist Yichen Lu of HAI and Ruan Li, Director of the Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, establishes joint laboratories working on AIDS vaccine research and development for China and Africa.
Yichen Lu in China		"Africa Now!" A Leadership Summit to Define Africa Priorities for AIDS, held in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Phyllis Kanki w/ Anu Falusi & Muyi Aina, first APIN Fellows to earn Harvard MPHs	2001	AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. APIN, led by Professor Phyllis Kanki, seeks to develop major HIV/AIDS prevention and intervention programs in Nigeria.
		Research Discovery: First infectious molecular clone of HIV-1C from an African isolate. First Simian/Human Immunodeficiency Virus (SHIV) chimera based on HIV-1C of African origin.
ECI Brazil Team members Jose Ricardo Ayres & Vera Paiva		Brazilian ECI AIDS Care Team presents research to national forum on the state of HIV and AIDS care for women in São Paulo and Santos, Brazil.
ECI Brazil Team members Jose Ricardo Ayres & Vera Paiva		Launch of KITSO Antiretroviral Therapy Course for Physicians.
Max Essex & Pres. Mogae		Dedication of the new Botswana-Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory, in Gaborone, Botswana. It is the first dedicated HIV research lab in southern Africa.
Max Essex & Pres. Mogae		Botswana-Harvard Partnership initiates a randomized trial in Botswana known as the Mashi Study ("Mashi" means "milk" in Setswana) to evaluate the effects of medication and breastfeeding on mother to infant transmission.
	2002	HAI's China Initiative, the first Chinese recipient of an AIDS grant from the U.S. NIH, becomes part of Chinese National AIDS Program.
		The Tshepo Study ("Tshepo" means "hope" in Setswana), the first large-scale research study that aims to assess the emergence of drug resistance to and the tolerability of different protease inhibitor sparing highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) regimens, begins.
		Research Discovery: Identification of pieces of HIV most likely to be more effective for design of HIV vaccine.
		“AIDS in Africa” second edition published.
	2003	First volunteers are injected with vaccine in Phase 1 of the Botswana HIV Vaccine Trial.
		KITSO trains its 1000th health care worker in Botswana.
		Dr. Phyllis Kanki prepares successful grant application for the Harvard PEPFAR, “Rapid Expansion of Antiretroviral Therapy Program."
	2004	KITSO trains its 3000th health care worker in Botswana.
		BHP helps in treating more than 11,000 HIV-infected patients in the Botswana national ARV treatment program.
		"AIDS in Asia", a comprehensive AIDS reference book for public health and medical professionals, is published.
		Research Discoveries: Evidence that HIV-1 subtypes have different timing patterns for mother-to-infant transmission. Also, evidence that multivitamin combinations can prolong life in HIV positive women published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
		First roundtable on "Economic Evaluation of ARV Programs in Southern Africa" is held in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
	2005	“HIV Vaccines for Developing Countries: Analysis of Acute and Early Infections” meeting held in Nairobi, Kenya.
		Research Discovery: evidence that HIV-1 drug resistance profiles may be different for HIV-1C.
	2006	Botswana-Harvard Parntership marks 10th anniversary.
Ric Marlink and Peter Piot at the conference		“HIV/AIDS Interventions in Developing Countries: Using Cost Benefit and Cost Effectiveness to Help Guide Policy and Action” conference takes place in Boston.
Ric Marlink and Peter Piot at the conference		Research Discovery: Evidence that prophylactic drugs to infants can reduce rates of breastfeeding transmissions.
	2007	"AIDS Action and Botswana: Lessons in Capacity Building and Importance of Research” conference held in Botswana for government leaders from southern Africa.
		The Botswana-Harvard AIDS Initiative Partnership becomes an independent corporation.
Max Essex and Shahin Lockman		Study published in The New England Journal of Medicine shows best drug regimen for preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV in resource poor settings, while decreasing risk of drug resistance for mother.
	2008	KITSO trains its 5000th health care worker in Botswana.