[afro-nets] Pediatric ARV and Clinton

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Pediatric ARV and Clinton
-------------------------

"Former President Clinton to Launch Global Initiative"
Voice of America (08.01.05): Mary Motta

Next month a delegation of world leaders, US politicians, busi-
ness leaders, and celebrities will gather in New York for the
first Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). Former President Bill
Clinton told Voice of America he got the idea from the World
Economic Forum that meets each year in Davos, Switzerland.

The Davos gatherings have sometimes been criticized for produc-
ing more talk than action. Clinton said CGI would meet yearly,
giving delegates a chance to learn about three or four issues in
some depth, then leave the conference with a commitment to take
specific action on one of the issues over the coming year.

"I am doing this because I was always interested in AIDS and al-
ways interested in Africa, and interested in Latin America, and
the developing world," Clinton said. "I got into this specific
action because I realized over the last three years how much you
could do, if you really focused on a couple of areas and topics
to marshal resources, organization, and will."

The Clinton Foundation recently negotiated discounts for an-
tiretrovirals (ARVs) for more than 100,000 HIV/AIDS patients in
the developing world, and it expects to have 300,000 patients on
ARVs by the end of the year.

Recently in Rwanda, Clinton donated a year's supply of ARVs for
2,500 children with HIV, and he regretted his "personal failure"
to intervene in the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people
there. In Kenya, he proposed treatment for an additional 1,000
children through the Clinton Foundation's Pediatric HIV/AIDS
Initiative.

CGI will be held in New York Sept. 15-17 to coincide with the UN
General Assembly meeting. It will focus on four topics: poverty,
corruption, climate change, and religious and ethnic reconcilia-
tion. Expected guests include British Prime Minister Tony Blair,
King Abdullah of Jordan, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Calif.).