HIV/AIDS
When the Clinton Health Access Initiative (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.
From 2002 to 2010, as an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, 4 million patients were able to access CHAI-negotiated ARV drugs and as of today, CHAI’s work, as a separate 501(c)(3), has over 11.5 million patients accessing treatment.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) was founded in 2002 with a transformational goal: help save the lives of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by dramatically scaling up antiretroviral treatment. When CHAI was founded, many viewed this goal as unreasonable because health systems in poor countries were too weak and prices of relevant drugs and diagnostic tests were too high. CHAI played a leadership role, working alongside governments and other partners, to lower the costs of treatment and help build the in-country systems necessary to provide lifesaving treatment to millions of people. Since then, CHAI has pursued several similarly ambitious goals, from scaling up pediatric AIDS treatment in order to achieve equity with adults in a time frame few thought possible, to rapidly accelerating the rollout of new vaccines. CHAI became a separate, affiliated entity in 2010.
When the Clinton Health Access Initiative (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.
When the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a separate, affiliated entity, began working on pediatric HIV/AIDS in 2005, kids were being left behind. Only one in 40 children in need were on treatment, compared to one in eight adults.
In the past decade, remarkable advances have been made in treating and preventing malaria. Better medicines and long-lasting bed nets have been developed. Donor funding for malaria control has dramatically increased from $153 million in 2000 to over $1 billion in 2010.
Building on the work of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a separate, affiliated entity, to scale up HIV testing and treatment for children, CHAI’s Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) program takes a comprehensive approach to stopping new pediatric infections.
The world spends billions of dollars each year developing drugs, vaccines, and other lifesaving interventions to help low-income countries. However, every dollar spent is wasted if there is no health worker to provide these essential health services to patients.
The Laboratory Services Team, housed under the Access to Medicines program of the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a separate, affiliated entity, works to increase patients’ access to rapid, accurate, and cost-efficient diagnostics.
Working with the governments of developing countries and the pharmaceutical industry, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), a separate, affiliated entity, has helped dramatically lower the cost of lifesaving medicines and diagnostics for HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
Most low-income countries have national immunization programs that routinely vaccinate 70 to 90 percent of their infants. The eight vaccines included in most programs, together, usually cost less than $20 per infant.
Diarrhea is responsible for more than 700,000 deaths among children each year.
The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) was founded in 2002 with a transformational goal: help save the lives of millions of people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world by dramatically scaling up antiretroviral treatment. When CHAI was founded, many viewed this goal as unreasonable because health systems in poor countries were too weak and prices of relevant drugs and diagnostic tests were too high. CHAI played a leadership role, working alongside governments and other partners, to lower the costs of treatment and help build the in-country systems necessary to provide lifesaving treatment to millions of people. Since then, CHAI has pursued several similarly ambitious goals, from scaling up pediatric AIDS treatment in order to achieve equity with adults in a time frame few thought possible, to rapidly accelerating the rollout of new vaccines. CHAI has achieved many of its most important successes when seeking to fundamentally change the way the world approaches an issue and pushing the boundaries of what is considered feasible in global health. CHAI’s focus is transformational work that creates a fundamental change in the way actors approach and realize goals. To do this, the degree of impact of a CHAI program must be dramatic, the scale must be at the national or global level, the breadth must change the way others approach the problem, and the sustainability must allow for CHAI’s eventual exit without erosion of impact. Today, CHAI operates in 38 countries across the developing world and more than 70 countries are able to access CHAI-negotiated price reductions, vaccines, medical devices, and diagnostics. CHAI became a separate, affiliated entity in 2010.
Visit clintonhealthaccess.org to learn more.