Watson Coleman: “Today, I had an opportunity to meet with Ambassador Tobias. We talked about this issue of capacity. He said he was in a…”

“Today, I had an opportunity to meet with Ambassador Tobias. We talked about this issue of capacity. He said he was in a warehouse--either in Botswana or South Africa--but he was in a warehouse. The warehouse was full of antiretroviral drugs. They were close to their expiration date. These drugs had been donated by a company. The drugs were there but they didn't have the capacity to get them all out. Those drugs were in danger of being wasted. We were in South Africa this summer. I was with Leader Frist and others and dealing with the issue of AIDS. There are 5 million people in South Africa who are HIV positive. There are approximately 20,000 receiving antiretroviral treatment. We visited Anglo Gold, one of the largest gold mines in the world. They made a commitment to each and every employee to cover the full cost of treatment. Money is not the issue. They believe they have perhaps 30,000 employees HIV positive. They were hoping to get in the first year 10 percent, 3,000 to come in for treatment. They have a third of that and less to date.”