Seven awards have been made to U.S. universities and institutions as supplements to existing grants under the FIC AIDS International Training and Research Program or International Training and Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases Program to extend existing research investments in these critical areas. The supplements aim to build global health research and public health capacity to better respond to the threat posed by TB in general, and multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB in particular. Long-term objectives include strengthening laboratory infrastructure in support of future TB surveillance and research, building public health capabilities for surveillance and clinical trials of promising new TB interventions and therapies, and enhancing the capability of developing countries to manage TB programs and conduct operational research related to TB prevention and control.

Dr. Gerald T. Keusch, M.D., Director of the FIC, announced the awards and stressed the need to prepare current and future generations of researchers and public health workers around the world to confront the global TB epidemic. "As we enter the next century", he said, "we will need to establish and strengthen model TB clinical research, treatment and prevention centers that will play a major role in the fight against the reemergence and continuing spread of this disease."

The following institutions were successful applicants in the first review cycle for these supplemental awards:

• New York State Department of Health (Principal Investigator, Dr. Dale Morse) will collaborate with institutions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Georgia, Poland, and Russia;
• Cornell University Medical College (Principal Investigator, Dr. Warren D. Johnson, Jr.) will collaborate with institutions in Haiti, Peru, and Brazil;
• Johns Hopkins University (Principal Investigator, Dr. Christopher Beyrer) will collaborate with institutions in South Africa, Peru, India, Haiti, and Brazil;
• Columbia University (Principal Investigator, Dr. Zena Stein) will collaborate with institutions in South Africa;
• Case Western Reserve University (Principal Investigator, Dr. Christopher Whalen) will collaborate with institutions in Mexico and Uganda;
• University of Miami School of Medicine (Principal Investigator, Dr. Marianna K. Baum) will collaborate with institutions in Honduras and the Dominican Republic; and
• University of California School of Public Health (Principal Investigator, Dr. Lee Riley) will collaborate with institutions in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting Dr. Kenneth Bridbord, Director, Division of International Training and Research, Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Building 31, Room B2C39, 31 CENTER DR., MSC 2220 Bethesda, MD 20892-2220; phone: 301-496-1653; fax 301-402-0779; e-mail: Ken_Bridbord@nih.gov.

FIC and NIAID are components of the NIH. FIC supports international collaboration in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. NIAID supports research to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as HIV disease and other sexually transmitted diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, asthma and allergies. NIH is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Press releases and other information about FIC are available on the Internet at: http://www.nih.gov/fic/.