A.I.D.S. clinic name

Press, 10 April 1987, Page 9

A.I.D.S. clinic name

The A.I.D.S. Support Network has rejected a proposal to call the new A.I.D.S. clinic in Tuam Street the Lambda Centre. Mr lan Smith, the network co-ordinator, said the word “lambda" had homosexual connotations and there was already a Lambda Centre in Christchurch. The name had been suggested by a Canterbury Hospital Board member because lambda, the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet, is often used as an identification symbol for the disease. The A.I.D.S. Support Network had suggested the clinic should be called the Ettie Rout Centre but Canterbury Hospital Board policy does not allow buildings or clinics to be named after indivi-

duals. Mr Smith said the network was still in favour of calling the clinic the Ettie Rout Centre. “Ettie Rout was a person who in World War I felt very strongly about doing something about preventing sexually transmitted diseases, mainly gonorrhea and syphilis. “She went to the war zone ,in France and she and a team of helpers met troops off the trains and handed out condoms and information on sexually transmitted diseases.” Ettie Rout had been recognised for her work in France and England but not in new Zealand, he said. “We feel the name, Ettie Rout Centre, lends itself to the type of work we are doing.”