In November, Harvard President Drew Faust toured clinics and laboratories of the Botswana–Harvard Partnership for HIV Research and Education (BHP) in and around Botswana’s capital, Gaborone. Established in 1996, the BHP is a research and training collaboration between the government of Botswana and the HSPH AIDS Initiative.
Faust was met in Gaborone by Max Essex, the Mary Woodard Lasker professor of health sciences at HSPH, who is chair of both the BHP and the AIDS Initiative. Their party visited a village outside the capital, Mochudi, with a population of 40,000 and an adult HIV prevalence of about 25 percent. The village is the site of a new AIDS Initiative research study called the Mochudi Project, featuring a comprehensive, community-based approach to HIV prevention that emphasizes the detection and treatment of recent infections.
Faust toured the Mochudi hospital and visited BHP clinics on hospital grounds, talking with young mothers in the NIH-funded Mma Bana study. The trial aims to determine the optimal drug regimen for preventing mother-to-child transmission among breastfeeding women.
Back in Gaborone, Faust met with young Harvard-trained researchers now working at the BHP, including Neo Tapela, a Botswanan doctor who is studying HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases. Faust viewed the Botswana–Harvard HIV reference laboratory, which serves as headquarters for the BHP. The lab houses research on multiple projects, including the genomic analysis of HIV-1C, the viral subtype predominant in southern Africa.
Faust also met with Botswana’s minister of health to discuss Harvard’s continuing commitment to the Botswana–Harvard partnership and with the University of Botswana’s vice chancellor to explore future collaborations.
At a dinner in the evening, Faust recognized the two former Botswana presidents in attendance, President Masire, who was instrumental in establishing the partnership, and President Mogae, who launched Botswana’s national antiretroviral drug program. In her remarks, Faust addressed the University-wide scope of the Botswana–Harvard partnership, saying that it honors the students and faculty at every level of the institution.
