But if Washington doesn’t put more money behind its ambitious rhetoric, HIV could make a major comeback. An investigation on the front line of the disease.
MAPUTO, Mozambique – In a 2011 speech at the National Institutes of Health’s rolling campus outside Washington, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a reset of America’s global HIV policy. She promised to alter the course of a pandemic that has claimed the lives of 39 million people and to secure a global generation free of AIDS. “Creating an AIDS-free generation has never been a policy priority for the United States government until today, because this goal would have been unimaginable just a few years ago,” Clinton said. She was referring to recent medical advances in blocking HIV transmission and halting its progression to AIDS that have made the prospect of stamping out the epidemic not just imaginable, but attainable.
Clinton’s announcement met with rapturous approval from HIV activists, donors, and researchers worldwide. It was especially welcome news in places like Maputo, the humid, bustling capital of Mozambique, where nearly one in five people is infected with the virus.