First paediatric HIV/AIDS clinic to be built

Botswana President Festus Mogae has announced plans for southern Africa’s first clinic for children with HIV/AIDS. Mogae was quoted in news reports on Tuesday as saying that the clinic, the Baylor Children’s Clinical Centre for Excellence, was a US $10 million public-private sector partnership. He said the partnership was between the Botswana Ministry of Health, Gaborone’s Princess Marina Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children’s Hospital in the United States and pharmaceutical giant, Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Secure the Future programme. Secure the Future is US $100 million dollar commitment to assist women and children infected with HIV/AIDS in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.