Canadian AIDS project planned for December

Lesotho is set to benefit from a Canadian AIDS initiative, to be launched in December. In response to an appeal by UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, the Ontario Hospital Association in Canada will set up a clinic in the tiny mountain kingdom, where an estimated 30 percent of adults are living with HIV/AIDS. According to Russell Armstrong, vice president of the Ottawa Hospital and part of the project, an advance team is expected to provide a complete assessment of how the clinic can become sustainable by building relationships with elders, government officials and local medical personnel. Canadian newspaper The Ottawa Citizen quoted Armstrong as saying: "It's particularly exciting, since we will be one of the first projects to set up since the availability of lower-cost drugs."