Press Release: President Clinton to Visit Zanzibar for HIV/AIDS Initiative
President Bill Clinton will meet with government leaders and visit two HIV/AIDS centers in Zanzibar, Tanzania on Thursday, July 21, 2005 as part of his weeklong tour of Africa.
President Clinton will visit Zanzibar from July 21-22, 2005, to review progress on the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative, which accelerated its program there earlier this year. President Clinton will reaffirm his Foundation's commitment to bringing lifesaving AIDS medicines to Zanzibar and working to end the stigma associated with people living with HIV/AIDS.
In Zanzibar, President Clinton will meet with President Karume to discuss ways to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. Following this meeting, President Clinton will visit two HIV/AIDS centers, the first being the Mnazi Moja Hospital Care and Treatment Center, the first and currently the only hospital to provide treatment in Zanzibar. At the end of June, the hospital had 59 patients on antiretroviral treatment, of which 10 were children. More have been enrolled since. President Clinton will also visit the People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) headquarters to meet with individuals living with HIV/AIDS and to discuss ways to alleviate the stigma associated with it.
The Clinton Foundation has been working intensively in Zanzibar since January 2005, and the number of people on antiretroviral treatment has increased dramatically in recent months. The Clinton Foundation helped develop the national plan for HIV/AIDS in Tanzania in 2003.
Prior to his visit in Zanzibar, President Clinton launched the Mkapa Fellowship in Dar es Salaam, a program sponsored by the Clinton Foundation that aims to train and support healthcare workers in HIV/AIDS care and treatment for service in rural areas, where the AIDS problem is often most acute and healthcare services are least available.
# # #
Learn more about our work at https://www.clintonfoundation.org/about, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and on Twitter @ClintonFdn.