Saving
AIDS Drugs for African Victims
From a news story by
CNN San Francisco Reporter Greg Lefevre
December 21, 2000
In some African countries, the cost of treating an AIDS patient may
exceed his or her entire annual income. Here in the U.S., some hospitals
and clinics routinely destroy huge quantities of the life saving drugs.
That prompted one man to launch a crusade.
From his cramped, one bedroom San Francisco apartment, Lee Wildes almost
single handedly takes on one the biggest problems in the world, AIDS
in Africa.
Lee Wildes as he works says, "Through her work she was able to
send us e-mails saying she was needing refills."
Refills of AIDS drugs: surplus, or leftovers, from U.S. clinics, or
hospitals, or from the survivors of those who died from AIDS.
Lee Wildes says, "I knew, having been a nurse, that I had thrown
away millions and millions of dollars worth of drugs. And that no nurse
likes to do it."
Five years ago, after learning he was HIV positive, Wildes took a vacation
in Africa and [he] saw first hand the scale of its AIDS epidemic. When
he returned to the United States, he learned new drugs were prolonging
lives of those with aids and began a personal campaign to get the drugs
to Africa.
Lee Wildes says, "We're not just putting medicine in a box, helter
skelter, and God hope it gets to the same patient."
Consulting with African doctors by mail, e-mail and telephone, Wildes
acts as case manager for a
hundred patients in six African countries.
"40 mgs a day, for three months...", he says as he reads through
his mail.
[He is] carefully filling doctors' prescriptions and documenting the
medications. Once a year, he goes to Africa to work in clinics. "This
man was so confused and disoriented and so sick I was certain he wouldn't
make it, and right now he's a metal worker doing heavy steel work, doing
work that I couldn't do."
What Wildes is doing is illegal; dispensing drugs without a license
but it's not likely he'll be prosecuted for his humanitarian effort.
With more than 25 million Africans infected with the AIDS virus, Wildes'
100 patients may seem like a small success but it is a success admired
by those trying to fight AIDS on a global scale.
[Dr. Richard Feacham of the University of California San Francisco Institute
for Global Health says]: "In the face of the enormity and horror
of the epidemic, and in the face of such little action, it's very natural
that individuals who really care about this problem become motivated
and active to do something about it."
Wildes says he's not only helping a few but creating a treatment model
he hopes will show governments and drug companies what can be done.
Additional Notes:
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