Uganda Has More HIV Patients Than It Can Treat, Pfizer CEO Says
Uganda now has more HIV-positive people than it can treat, according to a successful HIV testing campaign, Hank McKinnell, chair and CEO of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, said on Friday, Reuters AlertNet reports. About 1.2 million of Uganda's 26 million people are HIV-positive, and health care workers say more than 100,000 need antiretroviral drugs, but most cannot afford them. McKinnell was speaking at the opening of an HIV/AIDS clinic in the western Ugandan town of Mbarara, which plans to treat 1,000 local patients with antiretrovirals. Pfizer provided half of the $700,000 needed to fund the clinic, which will be operated by the Ugandan nongovernmental organization The AIDS Support Organisation (Wallis, Reuters AlertNet, 10/14).
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