Mississippi Physician Who Founded HIV Treatment Clinic Commits Suicide

A doctor who founded an HIV treatment clinic in the Mississippi Delta region died Monday at his home of what was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, the AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports. Dr. Hamza Brimah, who was originally from Nigeria, opened the Magnolia Medical Clinic/Greenwood Leflore Hospital HIV Program in 1997 to treat about 10 HIV patients, and the practice had since grown to serve about 200 patients, according to the AP/Clarion-Ledger. "It's a big loss to the community because I guess I called him my 'communitarian.' He was very much involved in improving the quality of life here in the Delta," said Dr. Alfio Rausa, a health official who often worked with Brimah to promote HIV/AIDS prevention. Brimah in 1996 moved to the Delta, one of the poorest areas in the nation with one of the highest HIV prevalence rates statewide, the AP/Clarion-Ledger reports. The program received federal funding to treat low-income patients, and a $1 million HHS grant also helped to cover the costs of treatment for HIV-positive patients (AP/Jackson Clarion-Ledger, 12/11).