Life
Haiti AIDS research clinic named recipient of WHO’s Kochon Prize
A world-renowned clinic in Haiti that has become a leader in global health while leading the fight against HIV/AIDS has won a top global health prize.
The Haitian Group for the Study of Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Opportunistic Infections (GHESKIO) has been named a recipient of the 2013 World Health Organization’s (WHO) Stop TB Partnership Kochon Prize in Tuberculosis (TB).
Clinic founder Jean William Pape was informed of the honor in a December 20 letter from Partnership Executive Secretary Lucica Ditiu.
The annual prize is given to organizations that have made a significant contribution to combating TB.
This year’s US$65,000 prize was designated for fighting TB in conflict and refugee areas.
“GHESKIO’s leading work in HIV and TB for the past three decades and more recently for providing treatment services for the 1.5 million people who were internally displaced by Haiti’s earthquake in 2010 were especially commended,” says Ditiu in her letter.
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, 4 years ago next month, Ditiu noted that GHESKIO sent mobile teams into the newly-erected refugee camps to screen people for TB and opened a field hospital to provide care.
