AID grant no. AFR-0474-G-SS-9045-00 to the Johns Hopkins University for a project entitled `prevention of HIV infection in Malawi"

As part of a separate JHU project, a cohort of 1,000 HIV-1 seronegative women and their families will be monitored for 3 years. At 6-month intervals, the women will be screened for the presence of genital ulcer disease. The screening will be funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, but JHU will conduct two activities under the USAID grant. The first is to treat detected syphilis with penicillin and detected chancroid with erythromycin as a potential method of interrupting HIV transmission. (No intervention is feasible in the case of herpes, as the medication is prohibitively expensive.) JHU will also counsel the affected women on the relation of genital ulcer disease to HIV infection. The second intervention is to enhance Malawian capabilities in detecting and treating G.U.D, particularly among staff of Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, where the screening will take place.