With largest population (1.3 billion), relative low infection rate (less than 0.05%) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and rapid spread of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and well-developed infrastructure, China provides a unique opportunity to combat AIDS epidemic. Successful control of HIV/AIDS epidemic in China will contribute to control the epidemic in the world. We propose China's Integrated Programs for Research on AIDS (China- CIPRA). The overall goal of CIPRA is to strengthen the existing HIV/AIDS research infrastructure in China and build the capacity to conduct multi-disciplinary research to explore promising strategies for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and control. To achieve this aim, China-CIPRA proposes 5 research projects and 4 supporting cores in its overall structure. The 5 projects and 4 cores are: Project 1 Epidemiology; Project 2 Behavioral Intervention; Project 3 Virology and Immunology; Project 4 Clinical Research; Project 5 Vaccine Development; Core Training; Core Data Management and Statistics; Core Central Laboratory; and Core Primate Research. As much as possible, the 5 projects and 4 cores are integrated to reduce duplication within and existing projects in China and increase efficiency in the studies being carried out. Project 1 will study HIV prevalence, incidence and risk factors by setting up 4 cohorts (former plasma donors-FPDs, injecting drug users-IDUs, female sex workers-FSWs and minority ethnic groups) in Shanxi, Yunnan and Xinjiang and following them up. Project 2 will launch theory-based intervention among HIV+ FPDs and IDUs identified in Project 1 to reduce HIV transmission from infected core groups to others. Project 3 will examine viral and host factors that correlate with transmission of infection and disease progression in FPDs, IDUs, and discordant couple (DC) from CIPRA as well as from HPTN. Project 4 will characterize the clinical manifestation of patients with HIV and develop standard of care based on Chinese settings. Project 5 will construct three classes of HIV-1 vaccine candidates based the NTV, Gdalt and rDNA vectors using HIV-1 antigens of Chinese origin will fully support the implementation of five projects.
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