Saturday, July 1 2006 11:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: India and the US have signed three agreements on renewal of cooperation in the fields of AIDS, maternal and child health and environmental and occupational health for another five years.

Memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to renew the agreements, first initialled in 2000, were signed following bilateral discussions between India's Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and US Secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS) Mike O. Leavitt here Thursday.

The first MoU provides for the promotion and development of cooperation in the fields of HIV/AIDS and STD prevention, research, treatment and care, infrastructure development, training, and capacity building.



The second agreement calls for cooperation in the fields of maternal and child health research, treatment and care, infrastructure development, training, and capacity building.



The third one provides for further cooperation in the fields of environmental and occupational health research, education and training, infrastructure development, and capacity building.



In Washington, Ramadoss delivered a lecture at Johns Hopkins University on control of HIV/AIDS in India and discussed with provost Steven Knapp and university faculty issues relating to establishment of an Institute of Public Health in India.



He also visited the National Cancer Institute and met Elias A. Zerhouni, director, National Institutes of Health, and Roger Glass, director of the Fogarty International Center in the NIH.



Ramadoss inaugurated the 24th Annual Convention of American Association of Physicians from India (AAPI) in Atlanta on Thursday. He also participated in the concluding session of the Joint Working Group meeting on Environment and Occupational Health and visited Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.