Research Translation in South Africa

Abstract

It is estimated that 5 million South African adults and children are currently living with HIV/AIDS and because the scientific consensus is that an AIDS vaccine is the only way of curbing this pandemic, the South African HIV Vaccine Action Campaign (SA HIVAC) was established in 2000 as a community mobilisation and preparedness campaign to inform and educate the South African population about the HIV/AIDS vaccine development process. SA HIVAC includes an Information Clearinghouse whose role is to create an information system providing for the collection, storage and retrieval of information with the necessary architecture. This article describes the Information Clearinghouse's activities.

Key Words:

• Research translation
• knowledge translation
• community mobilisation
• HIV vaccines
• Information Clearinghouse