Hillary Who? In Tanzania, It's All About Bill and the Malaria Drugs
Ex-president promises affordable drugs to fight the common scourge of malaria.
PUGUKAIJUDENI, Tanzania, July 22, 2007 — -- A wall of people pushed and shoved, straining to see the white man with the bright white hair. Most of them know his name: "Beel Clin-tuhn" they offered tentatively.
In this part of Tanzania, Kiswahili is the main language. Most of the crowd doesn't speak English. But they understood that former President Bill Clinton was there in their village for a good reason.
"We need drugs. Cheap drugs," said Aidan Comba.
In Tanzania, malaria is as common as the flu is in the United States. Nearly everyone in this country of 40 million people has had the disease. Each year, another 100,000 Tanzanians die from Malaria. Eighty percent of them are children under five.
Comba said he's lost count of how many times he's been infected by a mosquito bite. Another man in his 20s said he's had at least 30 bouts of malaria.
But the most effective drugs against malaria are very expensive for most Tanzanians -- the equivalent of one month's salary to beat back one round of the illness. One single anti-malaria pill can cost $10 dollars in a private pharmacy. And about half of all Tanzanians access treatment through the private system.
Enter the former president of the United States.
On Sunday, Clinton announced a new initiative by his Clinton Foundation to provide a subsidy and make the best anti-malaria drugs cheaper here.
Instead of $10 a pop, one pill could now cost less than a dollar, perhaps 20 to 80 cents each.
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