Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Funds Treatment
Program in South Africa

St. Mary's Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, site of a newly opened HIV/AIDS clinic.

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation recently awarded a $177,000 grant to Pangaea to fund the purchase of antiretroviral drugs for treatment of HIV/AIDS patients in South Africa. This grant coincided with the February 2003 opening of a new clinic at St. Mary's Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal and allows for the immediate treatment of 80 to 100 people over the next year.

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		Articles in This Issue:
		•	Pangaea Partners with Clinton Foundation on Countrywide AIDS Treatment Programs
		•	Dr. Goosby's Global View: A Response to the Bush Administration's Proposal for Global AIDS Funding
		•	Pangea Staff Profile: Renè Durazzo - Vice President, Global Programs
		•	Pfizer Provides $11 Million to Build AIDS Clinic in Uganda
		•	Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Funds Treatment Program in South Africa
		•	Goosby Joins Bono's Heart of America Tour
		•	Rwandan President Honored During Visit to San Francisco

South Africa is currently experiencing the world's fastest growing HIV epidemic. There are an estimated 4.7 million HIV-infected people in South Africa, with 1,600 new infections occurring every day. The epidemic is still relatively immature, with only about 6% of these infections having progressed to AIDS. In 1998, approximately 120,000 AIDS related deaths occurred in South Africa. This number is expected to increase to 450,000 in 2005.

Pangaea has partnered with a regional collaboration of governmental health departments, hospitals, university medical institutions and community clinics in South Africa to develop models of HIV treatment and care that include access to HIV antiretroviral drugs. In KwaZulu-Natal, St. Mary's Hospital is located in a semi-rural environment -- the newly-opened Ithemba Clinic will provide comprehensive HIV care and treatment to patients from the surrounding community. In Gauteng Province, the Perinatal HIVResearch Unit at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital of Witswatersrand University is planning to start HIV antiretroviral treatment in the township of Soweto. In the Western Cape, the University of Cape Town and the Diana Princess of Wales HIV Research Foundation at Somerset Hospital are partnering with the provincial Department of Health to build HIV antiretroviral capacity within two, poor, semi-urban townships, Gugulethu and Masiphumelele, just outside of Cape Town. These four clinics are sharing resources and medical expertise, including the drugs purchased by the Doris Duke Foundation grant, while working collaboratively on program development, local medical staff training, a shared standard of care, and a shared evaluation system. When in full operation, they will treat 2,100 people in some of the regions in South Africa that have been hardest hit by HIV/AIDS.

Pangaea Vice President for Global Programs René Durazzo commented: "The grant from Doris Duke has helped us get this treatment program off the ground. The doctors in these clinics are providing ARVs to patients today because DDCF had the courage to step forward. Obviously, it's just a start, but based on the strength of this developing partnership, we're confident that other funders will follow their lead."

Pangaea was asked by its South African partners to convene and facilitate the partnership steering committee and coordinate development of the partnership and its operating structure. Pangaea provides technical support relating to clinic development, establishing standards of care, clinical training, physician mentoring, and program evaluation.