Toronto Globe and Mail Profiles Canadian Doctor Working in AIDS Clinic in Lesotho

Toronto's Globe and Mail on Tuesday profiled Dr. Philip Berger, medical director of the Inner City Health Program at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto, who is working for six months at the Tsepong AIDS clinic in Lesotho. Berger is leading a team from the Ontario Hospital Association that is helping Lesotho begin its antiretroviral drug treatment program under the direction of Basotho physician Limpho Lekena. Over the past three months, Berger has helped place approximately 250 people on treatment regimens and he and Lekena have increased the clinic's patient load from 100 to 900 patients. The physicians' primary tasks are to test patients for HIV, treat tuberculosis and fungal infections and attempt to "juggle prescriptions so they can make a small, erratic supply of drugs cover the maximum number of patients," according to the Globe and Mail. "You have to shut your heart down, or you'd never make it," Berger said (Nolen, Globe and Mail, 3/1). The complete article is available online.