August 6th, 2008

Former President Bill Clinton told the thousands in attendance at the International AIDS Conference that “we must do more”.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

AIDS is a big dragon,” Mr. Clinton said Monday, but unlike the mythical dragon slain by St. George, “this dragon must be slain by millions and millions of foot soldiers.”

Basking in applause, Mr. Clinton recited some of his foundation’s accomplishments, such as reducing the price of certain AIDS treatments for poor children to $60 a year from the $600 they cost three years ago.

But he also said much work still remains to counteract the high rates of babies born with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in many parts of the developing world. In the most desperate locales, the rates of mother-to-child transmission are as high as 15 times the rate in countries where pregnant women with HIV receive proper treatment.

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