Home Programs BIPAI Pediatric AIDS Corps

About the Pediatric AIDS Corps

In partnership with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, BIPAI has established the Pediatric AIDS Corps (PAC), which continues to dramatically increase human capacity at Network sites in eight high-prevalence countries in Africa and has the potential to transform the care of HIV-infected children and families globally over the next five years. The second class of 62 Pediatric AIDS Corps pediatricians and family practice physicians was deployed abroad in August, 2007, after completing one month of pre-service tropical medicine training in Houston.

The Pediatric AIDS Corps will help catalyze African children's access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment.

In addition to HIV/AIDS care and treatment, pediatric HIV/AIDS health-professional training is a core competency of the BIPAI Network Centers of Excellence. BIPAI has developed numerous training materials on HIV/AIDS for health professionals internationally, and sponsored more than 100 individual training workshops and courses for health professionals from more than 30 countries on five continents. Baylor’s 362-page HIV Curriculum for the Health Professional is in its 4th edition (September 2008, see Resource No. 3), was developed collaboratively in sub-Saharan Africa, and is possibly the most widely used HIV/AIDS health-professional training curriculum worldwide. It has been translated into Romanian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Arabic.

BIPAI has committed to the placement of a training coordinator at each of the Network Centers of Excellence to coordinate and facilitate ongoing pediatric HIV/AIDS health professional training initiatives in each country. By 2010, the BIPAI Network anticipates providing comprehensive pediatric HIV/AIDS training to a minimum of 7,500 health professionals throughout the world.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is having a devastating impact on children and families worldwide. This is especially so in southern Africa, where 40 to 60 percent of all deaths of children under age five years are caused by HIV/AIDS. In almost every resource-limited setting worldwide where HIV/AIDS treatment has been initiated, children are grossly underrepresented among its recipients. The Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative at Baylor College of Medicine has created a global network of clinical centers modeled after two landmark HIV/AIDS care and treatment centers it constructed and opened in Constanta, Romania, and Gaborone, Botswana. The purpose of this network is to build critical infrastructure and human capacity to catalyze access of children worldwide to HIV/AIDS care and treatment. In partnership with the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative also has established a Pediatric AIDS Corps that has dramatically increased human capacity at Network sites in five high-prevalence countries, and has the potential to transform the care and treatment of HIV-infected children and families globally.

The first class of 52 Pediatric AIDS Corps health professionals was deployed abroad in August, 2006, after completing one month of pre-service training in Houston. The five countries where Pediatric AIDS Corps health professionals are active are Botswana, Burkina Faso, Lesotho, Malawi, and Swaziland. Additional sites may be added.

Pediatric AIDS Corps

The Pediatric AIDS Corps will help catalyze African children's access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment.

The Pediatric AIDS Corps has helped to catalyze African children's access to life-saving antiretroviral treatment. Participants in the Pediatric AIDS Corps are asked to commit to a minimum one-year assignment (two-year commitment preferred) to a primary health care setting affiliated with one of five Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence in Africa. Every participating health professional will remain linked to one of the Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence for purposes of professional development and training, continuing education, and professional consultation. Participants will provide full-time primary and HIV/AIDS specialty care and treatment in collaboration with local health professionals. Pediatric AIDS Corps members will also participate in training activities of the Children's Clinical Centers of Excellence to build local capacity for pediatric and family primary and HIV/AIDS specialty care and treatment.

Adapted with permission from the BIPAI website, February 2009.