Houston - The first comprehensive treatment and training center in Africa for children with AIDS opened today as a partnership of Baylor College of Medicine and the government of Botswana.
"This state-of-the art center will be staffed jointly by a team from Baylor and Botswana," said Dr. Mark Kline, professor of pediatrics at Baylor. "African and American health professionals will train and work side by side."
Botswana President Festus Mogae officially dedicated the Bostwana - Baylor College of Medicine Children's Clinical Center of Excellence in a ceremony today at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone. The center focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to the care of HIV-infected children in Botswana and other southern African countries. Research, education and training are important elements of the center's efforts.
"Our goal is to offer the best possible care, to enhance clinical research and to provide training to those who care for children with AIDS," said Kline, director of the Baylor International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative and chief of retrovirology at Texas Children's Hospital. He said Botswana is the ideal location for the center because it has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and its government has made prevention and treatment of AIDS a high priority.
Construction of the center was supported by a $6 million grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb's Secure the Future program. Physicians, researchers and other health care professionals from Baylor and Texas Children's Hospital will travel to Botswana to work at the center for weeks and months at a time, Kline said. And health care professionals in Botswana will be given the opportunity for training in the Texas Medical Center.
"It's a perfect partnership," he said. "We are able to work side-by-side in tackling one of Africa's most serious health issues."
The center includes a large outpatient clinic, procedure rooms, pharmacy, laboratory, medical library, conference center and offices. Nutritional, psychological, social and child life services will be provided along with comprehensive primary and specialty care. The center will serve HIV-infected infants and children, as well as infants and children orphaned by the AIDS epidemic.
