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Dr. Ernest Darkoh
HIV/AIDS Expert
The global policy had been, 'there should be no treatment in Africa, just prevention.' But with 40% of the population infected, you couldn't just think about prevention.
Q: The life expectancy in Botswana had fallen from 72 years to 39 because of HIV-AIDS, before you developed the antiretroviral program. How are things in Botswana now?
Vastly improved compared to three years ago when I first arrived. I think when we started the program in Botswana, really it was in response to the President of the country, who at that point was faced with a situation whereby 40% of the national population of adults was infected with HIV. And at that particular point in time, unfortunately the global set of implicit and explicit policy had been, there should be no treatment in Africa, just prevention. But obviously faced with the situation where 40% of your population is infected, meant that you couldn't just think about prevention only.
Q: Are people getting more cavalier because they see people with HIV, like Magic Johnson, looking healthy and living a long time?
In quite a few countries, in Europe in particular, you're seeing a resurgence of HIV in the younger communities who didn't grow up with the horror and the ugliness that we saw in the early stages of the epidemic. Because the therapies are so much better, you catch people earlier. You don't see - the ugly side of the epidemic.
Q: Do you sense that people think the problem is so big that you can't even get your arms around it?
Often you find people saying, well, yes, it's a huge problem, 40% of adults are affected, so I'm going to start up this little clinic. Great, you'll start a little clinic that may treat 200 people. But when you have 200,000 who actually need treatment, you're really not getting there. And what we are trying - the message we're trying to get out is that, yes, it can be done, but it also can be done at the scale at which the problem exists.
After launching one of Africa's most successful HIV/AIDS antiretroviral programs in Botswana, Dr. Ernest Darkoh turned his attention to South Africa. Darkoh is one of the heroes profiled in the PBS series, Rx for Survival.
Related Episode
Recommended Web Sites
Dr. Darkoh is featured in the PBS series RX for Survival.
Webcasts and articles from the Time magazine Global Health Summit.
HIV/AIDS news from the Global Health Council.
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Published: September 15, 2005
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