Clinton Health Access Initiative
HIV/AIDS
When CHAI was founded in 2002, only 200,000 people were receiving treatment for HIV/AIDS in low and middle income countries with medicines that cost over $10,000 per person per year. The issue of absorptive capacity was constantly raised as many questioned whether recipient countries could effectively utilize funds and afford to provide large scale treatment without encountering bottlenecks in their healthcare systems.
A decade later, more than six million people are receiving treatment and CHAI has helped reduce the cost of their medicines to around $100 to $200 per person per year in many countries. Countries have repeatedly proven that it is possible to rapidly scale up treatment services. Currently, CHAI is working with South Africa – the country with the largest number of HIV positive people in the world – to triple the number of people receiving ARVs within four year’s time.