Thursday, December 1, 2011

Obama, Bush and Clinton to Participate in World AIDS Day Forum


President Barack Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton are among those who will participate in a World AIDS Day forum at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., later on Thursday, Dec. 1.

ONE and (RED) will host a forum that will focus on "the beginning of the end of AIDS." Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete; CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta; Florida Sen. Marco Rubio; California Congresswoman Barbara Lee; Bono; Alicia Keys; Dr. Patricia Nkansah-Asamoah, director of the PMTCT Clinic at Tema Hospital in Accra, Ghana; Florence Ngobeni of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and Kay Warren are also slated to participate.

More than three decades after the first cases of what became known as AIDS were reported, more than 33 million people around the world currently live with the virus.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told federal health officials and HIV/AIDS service providers during a speech at the National Institutes of Health on Nov. 8 that a so-called AIDS-free generation is possible. A Centers for Disease Control report earlier this week indicates that only 28 percent of the 1.2 million Americans with HIV have viral counts that are considered under control.

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