The Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has received a $24.5 million federal grant to combat AIDS in Botswana.
The institute will use the funds from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to partner with the government of Botswana to create treatment programs. The grant came through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a $48 billion initiative launched in 2004 by former President George W. Bush, and continued by President Barack Obama, to combat major infectious diseases around the world, including HIV.
The Botswana-University of Maryland School of Medicine Health Initiative will run five years with goals to of access to services for at least 90 percent of infected people, preventing transmission from mothers to children and better training healthcare workers.
The human virology institute, which has treated more than 1 million HIV/AIDS patients overseas, was also the recent recipient of a $50 million grant to combat the disease in Zambia.