Addressing the media yesterday, the founder of the partnership and Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UPenn, Harvey Friedman, said that as a research institution focusing specifically on HIV and AIDS-related complications, tuberculosis (TB), cervical cancer and pneumonia, they have contributed tremendously to the health care system in Botswana. He said that since he first established the partnership in Botswana 10 years ago, they have been engaged in research, education and providing clinical care for patients who had developed complications arising from HIV and AIDS. "It is important to study these diseases and we are doing this in partnership with the University of Botswana and the Ministry of Health.
We work on complicated diseases like cervical cancer and TB," he said. He said that they have provided training to medical specialists and that this has increased the number of specialists in the country. "When we first came here, we brought along only four infectious disease specialists who worked on three months' periods but to date we have 12 such doctors who are here on a permanent basis," he said, adding that some of the doctors are foreigners while others are locals. Most of these doctors are based in Gaborone while some are based in health district centres dealing with complicated diseases for children and adults.
