{"id":117,"date":"2006-09-01T14:02:39","date_gmt":"2006-09-01T19:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/2006\/09\/01\/nytimes-profile-clintons-two-act-"},"modified":"2006-11-29T22:02:12","modified_gmt":"2006-11-30T03:02:12","slug":"nytimes-profile-clintons-two-act-response-to-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/2006\/09\/01\/nytimes-profile-clintons-two-act-response-to-hiv\/","title":{"rendered":"NYTimes profile: Clinton’s two act response to HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> From the KaiserNetwork<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nThe New York Times<\/a> on Tuesday profiled former President Clinton’s role in the fight against HIV\/AIDS in Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. While Clinton “has made a lasting mark in a cause that he came to only late in his presidency,” he “faced some skepticism” when he became an HIV\/AIDS advocate after leaving office, the Times <\/span>reports. Through the Clinton Foundation<\/a>, Clinton has “undertaken projects<\/a> with two dozen developing countries, raising money to post nurses in rural Kenya, mustering experts to train hospital managers in Ethiopia<\/a> and buying drugs for thousands of sick children<\/a>,” the Times <\/span> reports. Although Clinton has been involved in other causes such as childhood obesity, tsunami relief and global warming, “he has made his most substantive contribution on AIDS,” according to the Times<\/span>. One of the first countries in which he addressed HIV\/AIDS was Rwanda<\/a>. In 2005, at Clinton’s urging and with the support of the Clinton Foundation, Paul Farmer, a Harvard University<\/a> professor and co-founder of Partners in Health<\/a>, “transformed a dilapidated facility” in Rwinkwavu, Rwanda, “into a thriving rural hospital,” the Times <\/span> reports. Since then, more than 1,500 HIV-positive people in Rwinkwavu have begun receiving antiretroviral drugs. In addition, the town uses community workers — instead of physicians and nurses, who are in short supply — to deliver the drugs to HIV-positive people. Clinton also has collaborated<\/a> with Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/a> on the global fight<\/a> against HIV\/AIDS “with Mr. Clinton bringing star power and Mr. Gates his deep pockets,” according to the Times<\/span>.<\/div>\n

Missed Opportunity <\/strong>
\nAlthough Clinton has “come a long way on global AIDS,” some people say his early efforts to combat HIV\/AIDS “did not match the epic scale of the human tragedy as it unfolded across Africa and millions died and were orphaned,” the Times <\/span>reports. According to the Times<\/span>, Clinton remains “adamant” that he had accomplished as much as possible for HIV\/AIDS globally with a Congress that was “hostile to foreign aid.” However, Clinton does believe he was “wrong” to focus so much of his HIV\/AIDS work during his presidency on protecting patent rights for drug companies. “The debate over whether Clinton missed a political opportunity to lead the charge on global AIDS years before Mr. [George W.] Bush seized it is far from over,” according to the Times<\/span>. Greg Behrman, the author of “The Invisible People: How the U.S. Has Slept Through the Global AIDS Pandemic, the Greatest Human Catastrophe of Our Time,” said, “There are two acts here. Clinton’s post-presidential leadership has been extraordinary. As president, though, the record is clear. Clinton was not a leader on global AIDS and the consequences have been devastating.”<\/p>\n

Clinton’s Work on Lowering Generic Antiretroviral Prices <\/strong>
\nClinton has been credited with negotiating lower prices for generic antiretrovirals through agreements<\/a> with pharmaceutical companies that cover more than 400,000 HIV-positive people in dozens of countries in part because Clinton’s “name opened doors with generic drug makers,” the Times <\/span>reports. For example, in 2003, Clinton negotiated<\/a> lower prices with Indian drug maker Cipla<\/a> to cut by half to $140 per person annually the cost of its most common antiretroviral. Clinton’s HIV\/AIDS advocacy also has extended to focus on HIV-positive children<\/a>, according to the Times<\/span>. His foundation has generated $4.4 million to purchase medicines for 13,000 HIV-positive children, train health workers, modernize pediatric wards and fund lab tests (Dugger, New York Times<\/span>, 8\/29).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the KaiserNetwork: The New York Times on Tuesday profiled former President Clinton’s role in the fight against HIV\/AIDS in Africa, as well as in the rest of the world. While Clinton “has made a lasting mark in a cause that he came to only late in his presidency,” he “faced some skepticism” when he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-policy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}