PHILADELPHIA, Penn. -- The Wistar-Philadelphia FIGHT HIV-1 Partnership Program for Basic Research is the only local program that simultaneously advances scientific discovery and promotes public health, especially of low-income inner city AIDS patients. Predominantly African-American and homeless, these patients are given opportunities to participate in scientific research and interact with the world's leading AIDS researchers.
Since its inception, the Wistar-FIGHT program has involved approximately 490 AIDS patients who have visited AIDS health care facilities and contributed to research more than 1,500 times. Patients enrolled in this unique program are helping scientists investigate the mechanisms of HIV infection and explore new therapeutic approaches to the disease.
Participants have toured The Wistar Institute, met with Wistar scientists and talked about current AIDS policy with guest speakers that have included Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Not only are the Institute's latest discoveries being explained to patients, but also they are being presented at international scientific meetings.
Patients who participate in the Wistar-FIGHT HIV-1 Program are given access to clinical care, regardless of their health insurance status, at the Jonathan Lax Immune Disorders Center, opened by Philadelphia FIGHT in September of 1997. At the Center, patients also are given access to social services that include counseling and contact with support groups.
The demographic distribution of patients in this unique program is consistent with recent statistics showing that AIDS disproportionately affects people in low-income communities, especially African-Americans between the ages of 25 and 44, for whom it is the leading cause of death.
Funding for the program is provided primarily by private donations, The Philadelphia Foundation, and institutional support from Wistar and Philadelphia FIGHT.
The Wistar Institute, established in 1892, was the first independent medical research facility in the country. For more than 100 years, Wistar scientists have been making history and improving world health through their development of vaccines for diseases that include rabies, German measles, infantile gastroenteritis (rotavirus), and cytomegalovirus; discovery of molecules like interleukin-12, which are helping the immune system fight bacteria, parasites, viruses and cancer; and location of genes that contribute to the development of diseases like breast, lung and prostate cancer. Wistar is a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center.