Page 67 - A Widening Idea of Health and Health Research - The South African Medical Research Council from Creation to COVID

A Widening Idea of Health: The SAMRC from Creation to Covid

AIDS education photo-comic book developed by the National AIDS Research Programme
in collaboration with teachers and learners in various high schools. The MRC acted as an
evaluator soon after its launch in May 1993. The storyline illustrated how relationships
needed to take account of AIDS and presented a range of choices for protection against
HIV infection.

However, notwithstanding SAAVI’s ample funding and innovative, composite
structure, a decade of research did not yield an effective vaccine and, amidst allegations
of mismanagement and poor strategic thinking, clinical trials run by the MRC’s
dedicated HIV Trial Research Unit in Durban began to be scaled down from 2008. In
2012 SAAVI itself was downgraded and became a unit under the HIV Programme of
the MRC’s Grant Innovation and Product Development Division.

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