Piecing the Puzzle: The Genesis of AIDS Research in Africa

Abstract

In 1979, Dr. Allan Ronald, a specialist in infectious diseases from Canada, and Dr. Herbert Nsanze, head of medical microbiology at University of Nairobi, met through the World Health Organization. Ronald had just completed a successful project that cured a chancroid (genital ulcer) epidemic in Winnipeg and Nsanze asked him to come to Kenya to help with Kenya's "sexual diseases problem." That initial invitation led to a groundbreaking international scientific collaboration that would uncover critical pieces in the complex puzzle that became today's HIV/AIDS pandemic. In Piecing the Puzzle, journalist and documentary filmmaker Larry Krotz chronicles the fascinating history of the pioneering Kenyan, Canadian, Belgian, and American research team that uncovered HIV/AIDS in Kenya, their scientific breakthroughs and setbacks, and their exceptional thirty-year relationship that began a new era of global health collaboration.