In 2003, Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, encouraged Ontario hospitals to take active leadership in the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and its partner, The Change Foundation (TCF), responded in 2004 with the launch of OHAfrica.

OHAfrica chose the southern African kingdom of Lesotho as the focus of its project. Lesotho ranks third in the world for prevalence of HIV/AIDS infections. Close to one in four adults aged 15 to 49 years suffer from the disease, 60% of them women. Nearly 100,000 children under 14 years of age have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Since 2004, OHAfrica has partnered with the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and with local health care providers to run the first government sponsored HIV/AIDS clinic in Lesotho. The Tšepong Clinic (“Place of Hope”) provides lifesaving care and antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to thousands of HIV/AIDS-infected people in the district of Leribe.

Until early 2004, there was no affordable access to ARV drugs or treatment in Lesotho. The drugs cost between $14,000 and $18,000 CDN a year per patient. Thanks to a deal between the William J. Clinton Foundation and major pharmaceutical companies, generic ARV drugs became available in 2004 at the dramatically reduced rate of $170 CDN a year.

The Tšepong Clinic is the busiest public HIV/AIDS treatment centre in Lesotho. On average, 400 people receive HIV counselling and testing each month, and 80 to 100 new patients start ARV treatment therapy. By December 2006, over 6,000 HIV-positive patients were registered at the clinic, and close to 2,000 patients were receiving ARV treatment, 210 of them children.

The OHAfrica program continues to expand. In 2006, Tšepong Clinic rolled out HIV testing and treatment programs in community-based care centres across the Leribe District. Partnered with the World Health Organization and the Lesotho Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the OHAfrica team organized district-wide HIV training sessions for local primary care workers, providing training and support at 18 primary care centres. HIV testing and counselling are now available at 15 centres in Leribe, and ARV drugs are distributed to hundreds of patients at four local clinics. This decentralization of care eases the pressure of patient volume at Tšepong and allows patients to access HIV treatment close to home.

OHAfrica also assists Phelisanang Bophelong, a local HIV/AIDS support group, in running HIV prevention and education programs, and providing ARV drug adherence support and counselling. Phelisanang Bophelong means “Live Together in Life” in the Sesotho language.

Now entering its second phase, OHAfrica continues to focus on capacity-building support for local health care providers, ensuring the long-term sustainability of Lesotho’s HIV/AIDS program.