Bono visits Lesotho AIDS clinic

BUTHA BUTHE, Lesotho - U2 frontman Bono, in Lesotho on an African tour, visited a rural AIDS clinic today that he says shows how global resources can be used to provide HIV/AIDS sufferers with free testing and treatment.

In this small town, which has a single factory making T-shirts sold at U2 concerts, the Paballong clinic and its two nurses treat 266 patients with free anti-retrovirals funded by the Global Fund for AIDS.

Bono supports the Fund with profits from his Red Products branding initiative that has partnerships with the world's largest retailers to raise money for AIDS.

Inside the clinic Bono and his wife Ali Hewson, on the second day of the six-nation tour, squeeze into a small room with the clinic's only doctor, Phetise Sekhesa, and three patients.

Daniel Fatle, his wife Matumelo and their eight-month-old son Tumelo are being treated with the anti-retroviral therapy that significantly slows the progression of AIDS.

"It is a proud moment to see what is happening here," Bono tells the Fatle family through an interpreter. "We want it to happen in every country where there is an AIDS epidemic."

"AIDS used to be a death sentence and now it's not. It is a great moment for me and for everyone back home who took to the streets and marched on your behalf," he added.

Rock musicians like Bono and Bob Geldof have played at free concerts and rallies and leveraged their fame to persuade the world's powerbrokers to do more for Africa.

Just a few years ago drugs to combat the spread of AIDS were unavailable in most parts of Africa, but increased global funding and cheaper anti-retroviral drugs have increased access to treatment.

Lesotho, a mountainous country of two million people, has the fourth-highest rate of HIV in the world and nearly one in three adults is infected with the virus.

Mpho Ramatlapeng, country director for the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, praised Bono's work on AIDS. "We are in awe of your work," she told him.

"We are just students trying to find out what works and what doesn't," Bono replied.

Bono, his wife and their entourage then walked to the nearby Clothin Zone, an old brewery transformed into a clothing factory but which was nearly forced to close after the expiry last year of textile quotas meant to protect developing countries like Lesotho.

Black T-shirts were piled high and workers, mainly women, were sitting behind machines in two rows. The T-shirts are part of Bono and Hewson's Edun Live brand sold at rock concerts around the world.

- REUTERS