“HIV/AIDS has given us an opportunity to be much more involved not only scientifically and medically, but politically and socially.”


The Healing Touch


AS THE DIRECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA HEALTH SERVICES AND FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE CANADA AFRICA COMMUNITY HEALTH ALLIANCE (CACHA), DR. DON KILBY BELIEVES THAT THE HEALING TOUCH REQUIRES STANDING ALONGSIDE PATIENTS IN THEIR TIME OF NEED.


If you were to ask Dr. Don Kilby about the climate surrounding HIV/AIDS when it first surfaced in Canada back in the early 1980s, he’d be able to give you a vivid descrip- tion—because as the doctor who treated the very first patient in Ottawa with HIV, Dr. Kilby remembers it firsthand. “It was a family that was well known in city,” he says. “Their house and business was pelted with tomatoes, they received hate mail, and people asked them to move out of the neighbourhood... It wasn’t a pretty time, but fortunately it was a strong and loving family that supported their son.” Move the clock forward about 30 years since that first patient in Ottawa, and HIV/


AIDS has become a household name. Dr. Kilby acknowledges there are still some mis- conceptions among Canadians, but for the most part, the level of tolerance has changed dramatically here. Born in Sault Ste. Marie and raised in Espanola, Ontario, Dr. Kilby studied medi- cine at the University of Ottawa and com- pleted his residency in Family Medicine at the Ottawa General Hospital. He is a family physician, HIV primary care physician and has been the director of the University of Ottawa Health Services since 1988. In 2001, Dr. Kilby founded the Canada Africa Community Health Alliance (CACHA), an organization that provides basic medical care


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and HIV prevention services and treatment to African communities. Dr. Kilby had always wanted to do work in Africa. As a child, his mother brought home a book about Albert Schweitzer, a mis- sionary who built a hospital and leper colony in Africa—and ever since he read it all those years ago, he was hooked on the idea. So in 2001, during the Francophone Games, when the University of Ottawa Health Services hosted teams from Africa that included med- ical personnel, Dr. Kilby took the opportun- ity to make a connection with a young doc- tor from the West African country of Gabon, who invited him to work with his organiza- tion back home.


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