NGO receives US $10,000 to train physicians in HIV/AIDS treatment

A French NGO, Hanuman, which is to train physicians in the Central African Republic (CAR) in anti-retroviral drugs prescription, says it has received US $10,000 from a pharmaceutical company towards the effort. "That amount will be used to train four physicians in France late in March," Bernard Leclerc, a leading figure in Hanuman and adviser to the CAR president, told IRIN from Paris on Wednesday. A total of eight HIV specialists will be trained on computer-based HIV treatment and drug prescription. On their return, the specialists will train others in the CAR. Created in 2001 by the government in Bangui and by French physicians and researchers, Hanuman has acquired land in the CAR, where it is to begin building a $230,000 HIV triple-therapy centre on 8 March. Leclerc said that during the first year of operation it would cost $100,000 to equip and run the centre, and that the provision of medical testing equipment and drugs would cost $30,000.