What am I up to? (30 October – 5 November)

Some of you have asked me to post intermittent "informational" blogs about my day-to-day, and so I begin with this past week, which I spent outside of the kingdom of Swaziland in the country known as "the warm heart of Africa"--Malawi.

Malawi, as you will see below, is a beautiful country, and this past week happened to be the site of the biannual Baylor International Pediatric Aids Initiative (BIPAI) network meeting. The conference and associated gatherings took place Monday-Thursday, and included representatives from all of the BIPAI-affiliated sites (Botswana, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Malawi, Swaziland, Uganda, Romania, and others). I was lucky enough to participate.

This is a photo of Dr. Kline during the opening session. He is reminding us why we are here.



Note that Africa is fiery-red. If you have access to an alarm bell, please ring it.

The network meeting, in short, is a time to share ideas, innovations, and clinical cases to ensure a coordinated, proactive and united front between the many centers.

The meeting corresponded to the opening of the Baylor Center of Excellence in Malawi, the construction and operation of which is being largely funded by the Abbot Fund and UNICEF. It is a beautiful, functional building (see photo below), and it will be the home base from which the Baylor Aids Corps physicians in Malawi will care for HIV positive children and families, broaden similar services to health centers nationwide, and coordinate HIV training and prevention strategies.


Banda, Republic of Malawi Minister of Foreign Affairs, left, and Reeta Roy, Abbott Laboratories Divisional Vice President for Global Citizenship and Policy, unveil a plaque commemorating the event.

If you want more details on the meeting or the opening, check out http://bayloraids.org/programs/malawi/ or simply email yours truly.