The Wire

Australia, Canada and New Zealand have joined together for the first time on a collaborative research project aimed at improving Indigenous health. The study is the first to come out of a trilateral agreement signed in 2002 between the three countries, with similar projects to be established in the future. The focus of the scheme is to investigate the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Indigenous communities. Professor John Kaldor from the University of New South Wales will lead the Australian part of the program, which will continue over a five year period. He says the initiative is significant because never before has such a project been funded by high levels of government in different countries.