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Children's HIV/AIDS Medical Center Opens in Lesotho;
Public-Private Partnership Provides Staffing, Funding
Operated By
Baylor College of Medicine and the Government of Lesotho;
Funded By Bristol-Myers Squibb's SECURE THE FUTURE(R)
Initiative
MASERU, Lesotho, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The first
medical center dedicated to caring for HIV/AIDS-infected
infants and children in Lesotho, operated by Baylor College
of Medicine, Houston, Texas in partnership with the
government and funded by Bristol-Myers Squibb's SECURE THE
FUTURE® philanthropic initiative, opened its doors here on
World AIDS Day today.
The Baylor-Bristol-Myers Squibb Children's Clinical Center
of Excellence -- Lesotho will build capacity to fight the
disease in one of the world's hardest-hit countries by
providing state-of-the-art facilities for testing, treating
and monitoring patients and training healthcare
professionals. The staff will include at least eight
physicians from the Pediatric AIDS Corps recently
established by Baylor and the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation and two Baylor faculty members, representing a
more than three-fold increase in the number of pediatricians
available to care for children in Lesotho.
King Letsie III of Lesotho hosted the opening ceremonies,
which were also attended by Dr. Motloheloa Phooko, Minister
of Health and Social Welfare.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY - News) and Baylor also
announced that a similar Children's HIV/AIDS clinical center
became operational today in Mbabane, Swaziland. The Lesotho
and Swaziland centers are part of a growing network of
children's clinics in Africa and other resource-constrained
parts of the world.
"An estimated 20,000 children are HIV-positive in Lesotho, a
country with a total population of 1.8 million and only
three pediatricians to treat all diseases. The new center,
with ten or more pediatricians trained to treat HIV-infected
children, will provide primary care to thousands of children
and their families and have the catalytic effect of scaling
up HIV care nationally and regionally," said Mark W. Kline,
M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Head of the Section of
Retrovirology at Baylor College of Medicine and President of
the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. Dr.
Peter Traber, president and chief executive officer of
Baylor College of Medicine also attended the opening of the
new clinic.
"On World AIDS Day, as people globally focus on the fight
against HIV/AIDS, we are proud to bring this significant
resource to the people of Lesotho and to establish similar
centers in four other African countries," said Peter R.
Dolan, Chief Executive Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb. "We
also are inviting others to join with us in sponsoring
physicians to serve in Lesotho, Swaziland and many other
resource-limited countries as part of the Pediatric AIDS
Corps. Infants and children are Africa's most vulnerable and
most underserved, and healthcare professionals are their
front line of defense. By creating this network of
children's clinics, sending a cadre of specially trained
doctors to Africa and reducing the price of pediatric
formulations of HIV medicines, we are addressing the major
impediments to care of children."
Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence Network
The children's clinical centers network operated by the
Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative in
partnership with host countries includes five sites in
Africa funded by the SECURE THE FUTURE initiative -- one in
operation in Botswana since June 2003, one opened today in
Lesotho, another that became operational today in Swaziland
and two under construction and scheduled to open in 2006 in
Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, and Kampala, Uganda. The
Burkina Faso center will be the first pediatric HIV/AIDS
center in West Africa. The Kampala center will replace a
facility too small for the growing patient population. The
centers, all in resource-limited settings, will collaborate
with one another in improving care and treatment for
HIV-infected children.
Two additional centers will be established in the developing
world through the initiative. Sites for these additional
centers have not yet been announced. Other Baylor College of
Medicine children's centers are located in Malawi and
Romania.
The Lesotho center, like others in the network, will be a
focal point for providing comprehensive primary care,
including antiretroviral therapy where necessary, to up to
3,000 children on site and will have outreach programs
serving additional thousands of children in surrounding
areas. Located near Queen Elizabeth II Hospital and the
National Nurse Training Center, the new facility also will
offer training for local health professionals in pediatric
HIV/AIDS care and treatment.
Built through a $2 million SECURE THE FUTURE grant, the
two-story, 14,000-square-foot center has a large outpatient
clinic with 10 examination rooms, procedure rooms, a
pharmacy and a small laboratory. The second floor houses the
state-of-the-art training facility.
The center is modeled after the Botswana-Baylor Children's
Clinical Center of Excellence at Princess Marina Hospital in
Gaborone, Botswana, which now has more than 1,400 children
on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, the largest concentration
of HIV-infected children on ARV treatment in any center
worldwide.
Pediatric AIDS Corps
"We estimate that one pediatrician can prevent 1,300 AIDS
deaths in children per year. Thus, the potential impact of
the Pediatric AIDS Corps in countries like Lesotho and
Swaziland, each of which has an estimated 20,000
HIV-infected children and not nearly enough trained
pediatricians as well as in other African countries, is very
significant," said Dr. Kline.
According to UNAIDS and WHO, at the end of 2005 an estimated
2.1 million of the 2.3 million children living with HIV are
in sub-Saharan Africa. A recent UNICEF news release noted,
"Children represent a disproportionate number of those
needing immediate AIDS treatment ... The vast majority of
children who become HIV-positive will die before age 5
without treatment. Globally, between three and five percent
of deaths in children under age 5 are now attributable to
AIDS. In hard-hit countries, AIDS causes between a third and
half of child deaths."
The unique Baylor/Bristol-Myers Squibb partnership created
the Pediatric AIDS Corps to send up to 50 pediatricians and
family practitioners per year over the next five years to
Africa to serve at the children's clinical centers of
excellence and in surrounding areas. These Bristol-Myers
Squibb Fellows will provide care for approximately 80,000
children and train local healthcare professionals. The
program was announced in June 2005, and the first 36
physicians from the U.S. and Canada have already been
recruited.
The Pediatric AIDS Corps is funded through a $22 million
grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and $10
million from Baylor. The physicians commit to one or two
years of service in Africa. They receive pre-service
training focusing on HIV/AIDS and tropical medicine, living
stipends and student loan debt relief.
"We are hopeful that other funders, from corporations to
individuals, will join us in growing the Pediatric AIDS
Corps to include more physicians, nurses, pharmacists,
social workers and others who can help fight AIDS in
resource-limited settings and thus help save the lives of
thousands of children who might otherwise die from AIDS,"
said John Damonti, President of the Bristol-Myers Squibb
Foundation. He added that plans are being made to expand the
geographical scope of the program to parts of China that are
hard-hit by HIV/AIDS. And still another clinic has yet to be
sited.
The Pediatric AIDS Corps is part of the Bristol-Myers Squibb
and Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation's SECURE THE FUTURE
initiative launched in 1999 to help alleviate the HIV/AIDS
crisis among women and children in sub-Saharan Africa. The
company has committed $150 million to fighting the pandemic
in the region most affected by the pandemic. Some 200 grants
have been awarded since the initiative began, including
funding for the Community-Based Treatment Support Center at
Senkatana Center in Maseru. This demonstration site provides
comprehensive care, increased access to medicines and
monitoring and broad-based community support for people
infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Opened in 2003, it has
served more than 4,300 clients.
In addition to its commitment in Africa, the Bristol-Myers
Squibb Foundation funds programs through its Global HIV/AIDS
Initiative in Thailand, Vietnam, Mexico, Russia, the Ukraine
and France.
Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global pharmaceutical and related
health care products company whose mission is to extend and
enhance human life.
Baylor College of Medicine, one of the nation's top academic
health sciences centers, is committed to advancing human
health through the integration of patient care, research,
education and community service.
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