Chicago Tribune Profiles Former Botswana Treatment Program Official Ernest Darkoh
The Chicago Tribune on Thursday profiled Ernest Darkoh, the former operations manager of Botswana's public antiretroviral drug program and co-founder of BroadReach Healthcare, a private company working to improve health care access worldwide. After launching Botswana's antiretroviral program -- which has been one of the most successful treatment programs in sub-Saharan Africa -- Darkoh turned his attention to creating a "revolutionary" treatment model for South Africa, according to the Tribune. Working with private partners, such as South African-based Aid for AIDS, BroadReach has built a network of private doctors who are willing to treat patients . The program has the potential to provide antiretrovirals to 100,000 to 300,000 HIV-positive people in the country over the next few years. The South African program currently is getting started with donor funding and already is receiving support from South African provincial authorities. "For so long, Africa has been locked into inappropriate models," Darkoh said, adding, "Now it needs to step back, have a new kind of thought process and not just keep on optimizing things that are not working" (Goering, Chicago Tribune, 6/9).
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