Penn Students Participate in Penn-Botswana AIDS Project

By the end of this academic year, over 40 students and residents from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine will have taken part in the Penn-Botswana Program, which conducts clinical and educational activities to combat Botswana's AIDS epidemic.

The students and residents work in clinical programs at two of Botswana's largest hospitals, under the supervision of Penn faculty. Their service is part of the Penn-Botswana Program's mission to treat AIDS patients and to study and research AIDS in Botswana.

Penn faculty were recently awarded a $933,551 grant from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to support the program.

Harvey Friedman, MD, Director of the Penn-Botswana Program and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Penn, explained the importance of the program to Medical News Today. "Botswana is considered the test tube case in Africa regarding AIDS," Freidman said. "If we can't do something to turn around the epidemic in Botswana it would really be discouraging. This is one of the frontiers in HIV care."

For students and residents, Friedman said, the Penn-Botswana Program is "a once-in-a-lifetime experience....I am not surprised that, upon returning from Botswana, some students change their career goals."

The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine supports 1,400 fulltime faculty and 700 students. It is regularly ranked as one of the top medical schools in the U.S. in terms of research.

Source: "Penn School of Medicine Awarded Nearly $1 Million for African AIDS Program." Medical News Today, May 1, 2006.