Acronym
EUCO-Net

Full Title
European Network for global cooperation in the field of AIDS & TB

Programme
FP7-HEALTH – Coordination and Support Action

Contract Number
223373

Abstract
Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are on the rise worldwide, representing a global public health problem with considerable mutual interaction: TB is the leading cause of mortality for people living with HIV/AIDS, and HIV is the most potent force driving the TB epidemic in countries with a high prevalence of HIV. Especially in rural areas of Africa, Latin America, India and Russia both diseases form a deadly combination affecting large populations: In 2006, 39.5 million people suffered from HIV, and 2 billion people were infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of TB. Approximately 11 million people are “co-infected” with both diseases. Up to now, there is a massive failure to respond to the dual epidemic in an integrated way, and despite an increasing awareness worldwide, greater commitment and increased funding, current prevention and treatment efforts as well as coordinated research initiatives need to be strengthened to address the challenge of TB-HIV coinfection. TB and HIV programmes worldwide still work largely in isolation from each other and are focussing on national levels, although the urgent need to combat HIV and TB is recognized internationally. The objective of the support action is to provide an overview of the state of the art in HIV and TB research and disease management in the different partner countries, to identify global research priorities and to boost international cooperation between leading HIV and TB experts from Europe and those countries mainly affected by the two diseases - Russia, Latin America, South Africa and India.

Duration
18 months (01/11/2008 – 30/04/2010)

Project Funding
827,263.50 €

Coordinator
Saarland University
Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Virology
Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyerhans
66421 Homburg/Saar, Germany
Phone: +49 6841 162 3990
Email

Partners

Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium
Mycobacterial Unit (Dr. Juan Carlos Palomino)

Careggi University Hospital, Italy
Regional Reference Center for Mycobacteria (Dr. Enrico Tortoli)

Istituto Superiore di Sanita, Italy
Department of Drug Research and Evaluation (Stefano Vella)

European Aids Treatment Group e.V., Belgium
European Community Advisory Board (Wim Vandevelde)

Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Germany
Department Cell Biology & Applied Virology (PD Dr. Hagen von Briesen)

Central Tuberculosis Research Institute of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Russian Federation
Diagnostic Center (Prof. Dr. Olga Demikhova)

The D.I. Ivanovsky Institute of Virology Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Russian Federation
Laboratory of Immunochemistry (Prof. Eduard Karamov, Ph.D., Dr.Sc.)

Seth Research Foundation, India (Prof. Dr. Pradeep Seth)

Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Division of Medical Virology, Faculty of Health Sciences (Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Meiser/Prof. Dr. Gerhard Walzl)

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Technicas, Argentina
Mycobacteria Unit of the National Institute for Infectious Diseases (Dr. Viviana Ritacco)

Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil
Laboratory of AIDS and Molecular Immunology (Dr. Mariza Gonçalves Morgado)

European Research and Project Office GmbH, Germany (Claudia Giehl)

University of Antioquia, Colombia
Grupo de Immunología Celular e Immunogenética (Prof. Luis F. Garcia)

Contact at Eurice
Claudia Giehl
Senior Programme Manager
Phone: +49 681 9592 3378
Email

Project Website
www.euco-net.eu