The office will operate three research projects relating to HIV and AIDS throughout India: Project Parivartan, supported by a threeyear grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); a monitoring and evaluation program funded by the Children's Investment Fund Foundation; and a research and training program supported by the NIH Fogarty International Center.

Project Parivartan is supported by BMGF to conduct research on implementing structural interventions among highrisk groups in the four southern and two northeastern states of India with the highest HIV prevalence: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Manipur, and Nagaland. The project's goal is to reduce HIV prevalence among highrisk populations such as sex workers, truckers, and injection drug users by altering the context within which individuals engage in health behaviors or make healthrelated decisions.

The Yale team, led by principal investigator Kim M. Blankenship, CIRA's associate director and associate research scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health in the Yale School of Medicine, will collaborate in Project Parivartan project with CARE, an international field relief and development organization. The team will also work with other partners receiving support as part of the BMGF's Avahan India AIDS Initiative to conduct structural analyses of HIV risk and assess structural interventions for HIV prevention.

The second project housed at the new office is an antiretroviral pilot program being implemented by the Tamil Nadu Care and Support Network, in collaboration with the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society. The program will involve government hospitals, nongovernmental and communityb
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Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University
4-Feb-2005