Former U.S. President Bill Clinton praised efforts against AIDS in the Bahamas on Friday, saying the Caribbean country’s successes can be a model for other nations struggling with the epidemic.
Speaking to hundreds of high school students during a one-day visit, Clinton said programs in the Bahamas have proven particularly effective by reducing the mother-to-child transmission rate from 30 percent to 3 percent.
“No nation has done more to try to face this problem in a brave and forthright way than you have,” Clinton said. “You will be model for all the world.”
Before his speech in a school gym, Clinton also met Prime Minister Perry Christie and visited a clinic that provides AIDS treatment.
The Bahamas was Clinton’s first stop in a five-day Caribbean tour focused on efforts against the virus.
Since Clinton’s term ended in January 2001, his William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative has had experts working in the Caribbean and Africa to help expand access to treatment.
The Caribbean has the world’s second highest infection rate after sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 2 percent of people, or 500,000, – excluding Cuba where infections rates are low – are infected, according to the Caribbean Task Force on HIV/AIDS.
“If you can reverse and defeat HIV/AIDS in the Bahamas, if we can do it in the Caribbean, then we can do it in the places where the numbers are bigger,” he said.
Clinton has been an advocate of improving care for poor patients through expanded access to antiretroviral drugs and other treatment. Although international negotiations have sharply reduced the prices of antiretroviral drugs, their cost remains out of reach for many poor patients.
Clinton’s next stop is Puerto Rico, where he is to speak at a dinner Saturday held by the nonprofit Caribbean Council for Global Studies. Next he is to visit St. Kitts, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The Associated Press
