New York, NY (January 2, 2002) - GHESKIO -- a leading Haitian health
facility dedicated since 1982 to research, services, and training in
HIV/AIDS and other deadly infectious diseases -- observed World AIDS
Day last December 1 by holding a gala with hundreds of guests to
raise funds for a new Institute to replace its present, outgrown
quarters. GHESKIO (Groupe Haitien d'Etudes du Sarcome de Kaposi et
des Infections Opportunistes) is the second oldest institution in the
world, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
dedicated to the fight against AIDS, and it has been in the forefront
of many medical achievements.

Its new and expanded Institute, to be constructed on a new site, will
be known as the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Reproductive
Health.

GHESKIO and Weill Cornell Medical College

The connection of GHESKIO to Weill Cornell Medical College dates from
the Haitian Center's very beginning. Dr. Jean Pape, Director of
GHESKIO, is a 1975 graduate of the Medical College and is now a
Professor of Medicine there. Dr. Warren D. Johnson, Jr., B.H. Kean
Professor of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases at New York
Weill Cornell Medical Center of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, was
instrumental in the founding and guidance of GHESKIO from the start.

GHESKIO was the source of the first scientific study of AIDS in
Haiti, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1983.
GHESKIO's efforts have led to improvements in anti-HIV/AIDS training
and prevention, and to marked declines in HIV infection in Haiti. The
institution has also been responsible for new interventions against
infantile diarrhea, leading to a reduction in mortality from 40% to
less than 1% at the University Hospital in Port-au-Prince. GHESKIO is
credited with the large decline in infant mortality in Haiti
nationally. And GHESKIO has played a leading role in the fight
against tuberculosis, sexually transmitted disease, and other
diarrheal diseases.

At the gala, the long-standing ties between Haiti's physicians and
Weill Cornell were reaffirmed with the bestowing of the Award of
Honneur et Merite on Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson was cited for mentoring
over 100 Haitian physicians in the past 30 years, and for his
continual efforts on behalf of the health of Haitians.

A New and Expanded Institute

GHESKIO needed to hold a fundraiser, because, as Dr. Pape explained,
the Center's present building, at 33 Boulevard Harry Truman, in
Port-au-Prince -- though it has been expanded with the help of the
Japanese government, the French Cooperation, the United Nations Fund
for Population, and U.S. Agency for International Development -- has
not been able to keep up with an annual 25% increase in patients and
a large increase in the demand for training.

Eight years ago, a group of professionals from the private sector,
from disciplines
not related to health, created FHAME (La Fondation Haitienne de
Maladies EndŽmiques), a U.S.-tax-exempt foundation whose sole purpose
is to support GHESKIO. In 1997, FHAME purchased two acres for a new
Center. But this was still not enough, and so, FHAME and the
foundation of SOGEBANK (the largest Haitian bank), with the patronage
of the ambassadors of the United States and France, planned a gala
fundraiser for the recent World AIDS Day. The fundraiser will lead
to the creation of the newly named Institute of Infectious Diseases
and Reproductive Health.

Support for New Institute

The gala fundraiser was "successful beyond our wildest dreams," said
Dr. Pape. All 700 tickets to it were sold, at the equivalent of $60US
each, a large sum in Haiti. In addition:

--The Society of Rum Barbancourt and the SOGEBANK Foundation each
contributed three acres of land toward the new, still larger facility.

-- An insurance company provided $60,000 to secure a wall around the
new property.

-- Thirty-three different businesses have pledged to contribute to
build the new, $6-million center.

-- The Merieux laboratories of France and the French government said
they would support the construction of a new laboratory in the amount
of $3 million.

Dr. Pape said he is still seeking to raise $3 million more in the
U.S. to complete the new, larger center, and he and others are
actively engaged in these efforts.

Just recently, the French government, the Merieux Foundation, and
Biomerieux expressed a desire to begin the project as early as
January 2002.

Dr. Warren Johnson

Dr. Johnson received the Honneur et Merite Award for his years of
support to the improvement of the health of the Haitian people. Dr.
Johnson, the citation said, is "an internationally recognized expert
in infectious diseases," and, "He has also been a great friend of
Haiti."