[Picture this: Hilary as US President, Clinton as Sec-Gen of the UN.]

Clinton Pledges AIDS Campaign

Ex-President to Seek Funding and Support in Africa, India By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, July 13, 2002; Page A15

BARCELONA, July 12 -- Former president Bill Clinton today pledged to become a traveling campaigner in the effort to rally increased governmental commitment and political leadership in the global effort to prevent AIDS and treat people affected by it.

"Before the year is out I will go to Africa and India to lend visibility and support" and seek "more money . . . more action . . . and more understanding" in the battle against AIDS, he told thousands of scientists, practitioners, public health officials and activists at the closing ceremonies of the 14th International AIDS Conference.

"I call on you to hold me accountable to that commitment and to provide ideas of what else I can do," he said.

Clinton was cheered, as was former South African president Nelson Mandela, who followed him.

Mandela called upon people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) to reveal their condition and not be ashamed of it. He spoke of his own illnesses -- tuberculosis during his long incarceration as a political prisoner and prostate cancer in recent years.

"When you keep quiet you are -- and this is something we must say a hundred times -- you are signing your own death warrant," he said. "The best thing is to be frank and say, 'I have this disease.' "

Mandela walked on stage slowly, a cane in one hand and Clinton's hand on his other, their fingers intertwined. He wore a silver and gold brocaded shirt with a red AIDS ribbon pinned near the top button. A group of about 40 people from South Africa, who had spontaneously entertained the crowd during a long delay by singing traditional songs from their seats in the arena, greeted him with special enthusiasm.

In introducing him, Clinton said, "Only very rarely does the world respect someone as much as we love and respect him."

Mandela also spoke at the closing ceremony of the last AIDS conference, which was held two years ago in Durban, South Africa. That speech came at a time when his successor and protege, Thabo Mbeki, was the object of anger and scorn by much of the AIDS community for his open interest in the theory that HIV was not the cause of AIDS.

In that speech, Mandela electrified his listeners with the admonition that "history will judge us harshly" if people do not do all they can to fight the disease, a statement viewed by many as an indirect upbraiding of Mbeki's government. Mbeki's diffidence is still in the news. Last week, the country's Constitutional Court ruled that the South African government must implement a program to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV by giving pregnant infected women an antiretroviral drug at delivery.

Mandela, who will be 84 on Thursday, was more subdued this time. He spoke at length about the need -- and the payoffs -- of treating people in developing countries with optimal antiretroviral therapy, a major topic in the research sessions, news conferences and informal discussions here this week.

Mandela told a long story about one of the many college students his charitable foundation provides scholarships to who developed advanced AIDS. She was hospitalized and then discharged as a terminal case. Mandela heard of this and invited the woman to lunch, where she could barely eat or walk. He then arranged for her to be given antiretroviral drugs. The woman is now up and active, has regained weight, and is being supported by a monthly stipend from Mandela and his wife.

"There is life after HIV/AIDS," he said.

He talked about the growing problem of AIDS orphans: children who have lost at least one parent from AIDS. They now number 13.4 million in the world and 662,000 in South Africa (with the latter expected to rise to 1.7 million by the end of this decade), according to a report released here this week.

Children orphaned by AIDS "may well be subjected to abuse, violence, discrimination, trafficking and loss of inheritance," he told about 7,000 people in the Palau St. Jordi, a basketball arena built for the 1992 summer Olympic Games. Antiretroviral treatment, Mandela said, is a way to diminish the sorrow and hazard these children face.

"If parents with AIDS can be given a few more years, then their children will be given a greater opportunity for normal survival and development. Those few years of additional life will be the most precious of all for both the parents and the children," he said.

In his own address, Clinton said of the obligation of the United States to help underwrite AIDS prevention and treatment in developing nations: "We should figure out what our share is, and we should pay it." He mentioned an additional $2 billion a year as the size of a possible increase. However, he said the federal government is now spending $800 million in overseas AIDS programs, which is far lower than the $1.3 billion that Bush administration officials say is the true total.

-- Anonymous, July 13, 2002