Former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative is helping to provide cheaper AIDS tests and drugs in developing nations.
The foundation has brokered deals with pharmaceutical companies to bring the price of an instant test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, down to between 49 and 65 cents, or about half the normal cost. It has also brought down by about 70 percent the prices of some anti-retroviral drugs that slow the spread of disease.
According to the Clinton Foundation, more than 90 percent of the 40 million people living with HIV do not know they are infected. "If 90 percent don't even know (they have the disease) how can you ever reduce the number of sufferers?" Clinton told reporters.
"They need to know their status," he said. Rapid HIV tests can do that even in remote areas because they're easy to use and give results in 20 minutes, the 59-year-old former president said.
Clinton said he supported the African kingdom of Lesotho, which is the first country that has pledged to introduce the compulsory testing of all its 2.2 million citizens, of whom 27 percent are HIV-positive.
He hope to tackle the stigma surrounding the disease, so more people will be tested voluntarily.
Asked for his perspective on his post-White House role, Clinton said: "Directly and indirectly, I can have influence ... by chain reaction I might do some good. Tens of thousands of kids are alive now that might not have been" without his foundation.
CNN
No comments:
Post a Comment