Why HIV/AIDS?
Every day, 6,000 people under the age of 25 are newly infected with HIV/AIDS. Every hour, 40 children die of AIDS.
In the developing world, more teachers die every year of AIDS than can be trained to take their place. And more than half of hospital beds in some Sub-Saharan African countries are frequently occupied with AIDS patients, crowding out care for others. Virtually all social and economic goals in the developing world will be undermined if AIDS treatment is not made available to the more than six million people who are currently struggling to survive without it.
A Global Pandemic
Today, there are:
- 33 million adults and children living with HIV/AIDS
- 2.5 million new infections in 2007
- 2.1 million deaths due to HIV/AIDS in 2007, including 330,000 children
While numbers cannot express the devastation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, they help paint a picture of the grim impact the disease is having across the world. Since 2002, AIDS has been the leading cause of death worldwide among people ages 15-59. Women comprise half of those living with HIV/AIDS, and mother-to-child transmission accounts for more than 90% of all HIV infections in infants and children. Sub- Saharan Africa is the most affected region in the world, with 22.5 million people living with HIV. South and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and East Asia also continue to be hard hit by the pandemic.
Thanks to the joint efforts of NGOs, donors and governments, progress is being made. For example, success in reducing the cost of lifesaving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs has helped to ensure that by the end of 2007 approximately four million people living with HIV are receiving treatment, a 46% increase over the number of people on treatment one year earlier.
Still, only 31% of people in need of ARV treatment in low- and middle-income countries currently have access to it, and 33% of HIV-positive pregnant women have access to the treatment they need to prevent transmission of the disease to their newborn children.
Learn more about what CHAI is doing about this global pandemic.
Why Malaria?
Malaria affects an estimated 300-500 million people worldwide each year, resulting in 1.5-2.7 million deaths yearly, the majority of whom are children. In addition to the disease's direct impact on individuals and their families, malaria has been shown to have a significant impact on the economic growth of affected populations, costing Africa an estimated $12 billion in lost GDP growth every year.
Learn more what CHAI is doing about this often debilitating and sometimes fatal disease.
President Clinton’s Commitment: “No one should die before their time”
President Clinton has made finding solutions to global problems a major focus of his more than thirty years in public service. After leaving office, he knew he wanted to continue to address the inequalities in access to health care in the developing world. While delivering the closing remarks with Nelson Mandela at the 2002 International AIDS Conference, President Clinton realized his Foundation could play a significant role in expanding access to life-saving medicines and tests and in helping developing countries systematize their approach to HIV/AIDS treatment. As a result, he launched the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative.
How Does the Foundation Make a Difference?
President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation are changing the economics of HIV/AIDS care and treatment by applying business principles to lower the cost of lifesaving tests and medicines and by helping governments scale up programs, to ensure that high-quality care and treatment is reaching underserved populations.
PROFILE
After opening his own pediatric AIDS clinic in Kenya, Dr. Shaffiq Essajee joined the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative to develop a global pediatric HIV/AIDS program.
