Former President Bill Clinton's nonprofit foundation signed
an agreement Friday with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to help
deliver food to AIDS patients in high-prevalence poor countries.
The agreement combines the Clinton Foundation's access to
treatment with WFP's distribution system, expanding care for AIDS
patients who already receive antiretroviral drugs from the
Clinton Foundation and its partners, said foundation and UN
officials.
"One of the key challenges we face in tackling the HIV/AIDS
crisis is that if a patient is malnourished, the [antiretroviral
drugs] often do not take full effect," Clinton said in a
statement Friday. "This agreement aims to ensure a more effective
response in dealing with a crisis where the poor are
disproportionately affected."
The foundation's network of health centers will give WFP a
better means to distribute food to those in need, said Ira
Magaziner, chair of the foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative. "In the
countries we currently serve, we will spend a few hundred million
dollars in the next five years toward providing food and
nutritional supplements for people with AIDS," he said. "We buy
drugs cheaper and they buy food cheaper, so there's great synergy
there." For example, Clinton's foundation in Mozambique will
dedicate $30 million, or 10 percent of the total budget, for
food, said Magaziner.
The Clinton Foundation already delivers doctors, medicine
and equipment to 18 developing nations in Africa, Asia and the
Caribbean. Last week, it reached an agreement with the Chinese
government to provide services.

CHINA:
"China Unveils Plan to Curb Rapid AIDS Spread"
New York Times (05.10.04)::Jim Yardley
Noting that AIDS is in every province and region of the
country, the Chinese government on Sunday announced "urgent
measures" to improve HIV prevention and education efforts that
include holding local officials accountable for curbing the
virus. According to a 12-page circular from the State Council,
China's cabinet, "Those officials breaching duty or hiding
epidemic reports will be severely punished." The pamphlet ordered
local governments hit hard by the disease to establish AIDS
prevention and treatment working committees.
The announcement is the latest government effort to confront
a disease whose spread officials once actively sought to conceal.
The State Council circular said HIV/AIDS education will be
included in the curriculums of China's middle schools, colleges
and vocational schools, state news agencies reported. The
pamphlet stressed improving education in rural areas. AIDS
prevention posters - already on display in major cities like
Beijing - are to be placed at public "entertainment venues," the
pamphlet instructed.
Health care workers said the circular must discuss HIV
prevention with patients and encourage condom use to protect
against the virus. To reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission,
pregnant women will be given free treatment.
China is at a critical stage where HIV/AIDS might soon move
from high-risk groups like prostitutes and IV drug users into the
general population, warned Wu Yi, a deputy prime minister and the
government's point person on HIV/AIDS. Wu, who oversees the
Health Ministry, called for a crackdown on prostitution and the
type of illegal blood sales that led to an HIV outbreak in rural
central China. She also said condom use and clean needle
exchanges should be encouraged, state media reported Sunday. If
China does not improve its response to the disease, cautioned Wu,
"The consequences will be very grievous."