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Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence
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Laura Bush visits the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence in July 2003
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The Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence was opened and officially dedicated by His Excellency Mr. Festus Mogae, President of the Republic of Botswana, on June 20, 2003. This new facility, the first of its kind on the African continent, currently provides state-of-the-art care and treatment to approximately 1000 HIV-infected infants and children and 200 families from Gaborone and surrounding areas. Press release. The Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence was made possible by a landmark $6 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's Secure the Future program. The center is supported by additional funding to Baylor from the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global AIDS Program. Please see a written copy of Dr. Kline's remarks, made at the opening ceremony on June 20, 2003.
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The Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence
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Staffed collaboratively by U.S. and Botswana health professionals, the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence provides services that are comprehensive in scope, encompassing the primary and specialty medical care and social service needs of HIV-infected infants, children, and families. Most HIV-infected children are under the age of five years and are treatment-naïve. Health professional education and clinical research are integral to the center's mission. Collaborative education and training activities include development of curricula on pediatric health and HIV/AIDS for health professionals, short-term U.S.-Africa exchange fellowships, and long-term training for African health professionals at Baylor College of Medicine.
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Interior view of the Center of Excellence
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The Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence is the product of a partnership between the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Baylor College of Medicine, the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, and the government of Botswana. Dr. Gabriel Anabwani, professor of clinical pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, directs the Botswana-Baylor Children's Clinical Center of Excellence. Dr. Anabwani is the former chair of pediatrics at the Princess Marina Hospital, which is Botswana's largest and most important hospital. He has extensive leadership experience in pediatric HIV/AIDS care and treatment and clinical research in Africa.
Botswana is particularly well suited for the establishment of a Children's Clinical Center of Excellence for a number of reasons. Botswana's HIV prevalence rate is among the highest in the world. However, His Excellency President Mogae and the government of Botswana have shown remarkable leadership in promoting the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, and Baylor has established excellent collaborative relationships with the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone, the Botswana Ministry of Health, and other local partners.
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