No AIDS progress in the Caribbean without affordable medicine

Saturday, November 22, 2003

GURGAON, India, (AFP): Former US president Bill Clinton said Friday the AIDS epidemic will never be stopped without affordable medicine, as he visited an Indian pharmaceutical company taking part in his drive to provide cheaper treatment to poor countries, including nine Caribbean countries.

"I'm convinced without treatment we will never stem the tide of AIDS because without treatment you can't get young people to come in and get tested," Clinton told reporters.

"Because the incentive to get tested if all you're going to find out is that you're about to die prematurely is fairly small," Clinton said.

"The incentive to get tested if you're going to find out you can live a normal life and by taking proper precautions you can prevent the infection is quite high," he said.

"So the medicine should be seen as a very important part of a prevention strategy."

Clinton on October 23 announced an agreement to slash the costs of AIDS drugs with pharmaceutical companies. The companies will cut the price of a commonly used triple-drug regimen by almost a third to about 38 cents a day per person.

The low-cost drugs will be made available in the nine Caribbean countries where the former US president's volunteer Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative operates.

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