Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Reuters NewMedia - Sunday May 27, 2001
Adrian Blomfield
Powell, in Kenya on a four-nation tour of Africa, pledged to keep the search for an AIDS cure high on Washington's agenda but reacted more cautiously to calls for cheaper AIDS drugs for the world's poorest continent.
"President Bush and his administration will do everything they can to seek out and find that cure, a cure that will hopefully be available to people all over the world," he told an AIDS workshop in Nairobi's sprawling Kibera slum.
Earlier Patricia Ochieng, an HIV-positive activist with the Kenya Coalition for Access to Essential Medicines, appealed to Powell to allow Africa to import cheap generic AIDS drugs, a move bitterly opposed by the global pharmaceutical industry.
"I do have a very special appeal to you and the U.S. government to give more funds to Africa for treatment and to promote generic competition," she told Powell in a departure from the text of a speech approved by U.S. officials.
Ochieng said antiretroviral drugs could have saved the lives of her husband and child, who both died of AIDS.
"I felt so bad knowing that there were drugs that could maybe have prolonged his life but we could not afford this medicine and yet they were there."
The Kenya Coalition described a recent pledge by the U.S. government for $200 million toward U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's appeal for a global AIDS fund as woefully inadequate.
"This contribution represents merely two percent of the up to $10 billion that health experts are estimating will be needed a year to control AIDS in Africa," it said in a statement released to coincide with Powell's visit.
AIDS DRUGS CONTROVERSY
Activists said they had been prevented by U.S. officials from unfurling a banner saying "Put lives before profit" during the workshop.
"I got called by the (U.S) chief of security and told if you cause any trouble or put up the banner you are really, really going to get it from the police," Bertha Gachui, a member of the coalition, told Reuters."
U.S. embassy officials said they had no information about the alleged incident.
The coalition also urged Powell to support a controversial bill expected for debate in Kenya's parliament early next month that would allow the country to import cheap generic medicines, including antiretroviral AIDS drugs that have helped reduce the number of AIDS deaths in the West by 75 percent.
The legislation is opposed by multinational drugs giants which last month were badly bruised in South Africa after abandoning a court case seeking to challenge a similar law.
Triple combination AIDS drugs cost well over $1,000 per patient each year, campaigners say. With more than half of Kenya's population earning less than $1 a day, only about 1,000 of Kenya's 2.2 million AIDS sufferers have access to the drugs.
Powell expressed his sympathy over the problem but made no firm pledges to reduce the cost of the drugs.
"I am moved by her plea for the United States...to do what we can to get the treatment costs down to the lowest possible costs so that we can make them more widely available," he said.
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