Pfizer, the Academic Alliance Foundation, Makerere University, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation and others partnered to establish the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) in Uganda in 2004. The IDI, a major medical training and research center headquartered within Uganda´s Makerere University, aims to improve health in Africa by training medical professionals in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS and related infectious diseases and providing them with skills and resources to use in their communities.

The Infectious Diseases Institute involves the following activities:

•Treat: Providing care and treatment to more than 9,000 patients each year;

•Teach: Training African healthcare workers in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and related infectious diseases;

•Build: Training healthcare workers to transfer skills and knowledge to local health professionals and building research capacity through mentoring and fellowships;

•Serve: Sharing best practices to improve healthcare and attracting additional partners and supporters.

IDI has trained more than 1,700 healthcare workers from 26 African countries since 2004, 98% of whom are providing anti-retroviral therapy and other care for patients with HIV/AIDS. IDI-trained workers indicate they have trained, on average, 20 additional healthcare workers per month.

IDI is partnering with: Exxon Mobil to expand training programs; with Becton Dickinson to establish an excellence-in-laboratory-training program; and with Gilead Sciences to support a new generation of African clinical scholars and infectious disease fellows.