The governments of Ireland and Vietnam are joining forces with UCD and Atlantic Philanthropies in a new €5m medical initiative, writes Dick Ahlstrom
The governments of Ireland and Vietnam, philathropist Chuck Feeney and University College Dublin have joined to launch a unique medical research initiative in Hanoi. The €5 million project will see the building of a virus research centre, important for that country's fight against the Aids virus HIV, hepatitis and other infectious diseases.
To be launched in Vietnam later this month, the novel project is the brainchild of Prof William Hall, director of the National Virus Reference Laboratory at UCD. Some years ago he considered the potential for opening a molecular viral research lab in Vietnam. He began looking for funding and found it with Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies and the Government's overseas aid programme Irish Aid.
The result is the Ireland Vietnam Bloodborne Virus Initiative (IVVI).
"There are three components to it, but the overall goal of the project is to build capacity and infrastructure in Vietnam for molecular viral analysis," explains Hall, who is also a professor in UCD's school of medicine and medical science and a consultant microbiologist at St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin.
In particular the new facility will look at HIV, hepatitis B and C and HTLV, the human T-lymphotropic virus, but as Hall points out, "eventually they will have the capacity to deal with any virus".
Hall will work with the director of Vietnam's National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Dr Nguyen Tran Hien. The initial goal is to use funds to build labs and buy equipment to provide a world class centre for this activity. "We are effectively building an institute."
Education is also on the agenda, with UCD serving as a training centre for Vietnamese staff who will be based in the new centre. "We are going to bring Vietnamese clinicians and researchers to Ireland to work in the Virus Reference Lab," says Hall. The IVVI will in the future also provide opportunities for Irish physicians and scientists to work and study in Vietnam.
"The project represents a unique interaction of private philanthropy in Atlantic, an Irish Government agency, Irish Aid, and an Irish university, UCD, combining their expertise to bring capacity and infrastructure to this important area of medicine," states Hall. "It will certainly impact on public health in Vietnam."
The goal is to build a research centre and train the doctors and scientists who will work there, but the project also includes epidemiological work associated with the main diseases under study.
"We are going to start a nationwide epidemiological study to look at these diseases," says Hall. It will be conducted in six provinces looking at controls including army recruits and pregnant women and also at at-risk groups such as drug users and those working in the sex industry.
"We already know hepatitis B and C and HIV are significant problems in that country," he explains. But little is known about the viral strains involved and the pattern of infectivity.
"We really have a blank page there. Once we have that information we can inform the health system," he adds, the goal being to improve prevention and treatment.
"What's unique about this is 50 per cent is funded by Irish Aid and 50 per cent is from Atlantic Philanthropies," he says. UCD then provides the expertise and facilities to help the Vietnamese deliver molecular virology services in the new institute.
"It is a very interesting one from our point of view," says Minister of State in the Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for overseas development, Conor Lenihan.
"It is very much along the line where we want to go in overseas aid," he adds. "We are very much looking out for innovative ideas."
Its strength lay in the fact that it was a "trilateral" arrangement involving Irish Aid, UCD and a third party funder in Atlantic Philanthropies. "I am extremely keen on this and am looking for ways to bring more foundations into play," says Lenihan.
He was also pleased that the project involved one of the state's leading medical institutions in UCD making expertise available to Vietnam, one of the countries being targeted by Irish Aid.