AIDS lecture to highlight treatment programs in Africa

AIDS lecture to highlight treatment programs in Africa

By DEBRA THOMAS
Special to the Rice News

An upcoming lecture will address a promising collaborative AIDS initiative coordinated through Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston. The program will be held Nov. 8 at Rice University.

As part of the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management Dean’s Lecture Series, “On the Cusp of Hope: Corporate and Academic Partnerships Against Global HIV/AIDS” will focus on the care and support of HIV/AIDS patients in impoverished countries. Officials from BCM and its corporate partners in the initiative, Abbott Laboratories and Bristol-Myers Squibb, will speak.

“This program will highlight the unique partnership of this new initiative,” said Mark Kline, director of the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) and professor of pediatrics at BCM. “We believe that this partnership has produced noteworthy results in expanding access to treatment for HIV-infected children around the world.”

Program topics and speakers at the lecture include:

• “Impact of HIV/AIDS on Children and Families Globally” by Kline

• “Secure the Future: Care and Support for African Women and Children Affected by HIV/AIDS” by John Damonti, president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation

• “Step Forward: A Program for Orphaned, Abandoned and HIV-Infected Children in the Developing World” by Jeff Richardson, executive director, Abbott Fund Step Forward

• “Implementing the Vision of the Secure the Future and Step Forward Programs: Baylor College of Medicine’s Response” by Kline
In June, Bristol-Myers Squibb and BCM announced a groundbreaking, multipart program to provide medical care for African children with HIV/AIDS, sending up to 250 doctors to Africa to treat 80,000 children over the next five years and training local health-care professionals. Four new children’s clinical centers will also be built as part of the $40 million program.

Kline said recruitment of physicians has gone well, and construction of several clinics has begun in several regions in Africa. The first two clinics are set to open in December, with more to follow in the spring.

Over the past 10 years, BIPAI, Abbott Laboratories’ “Step Forward Program” and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation have become the world’s most active organizations in caring for and treating children and families with HIV/AIDS in the most resource-deprived settings of the world. These activities include treating the greatest population of AIDS-infected children in Europe, building the only dedicated pediatric AIDS clinic in Africa and implementing the largest pediatric drug trial on the African continent.

Held in the Shell Auditorium of Janice and Robert McNair Hall, the lecture is free and open to the public. The program starts at 5:30 p.m.; a one-hour reception follows at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit <www.jonesgsm.rice.edu/deanslecture>.

—Debra Thomas is the director of marketing and public relations at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.