California Public Radio Program Interviews Partners in Health Co-Founder, AIDS Treatment Advocate Paul Farmer

"Forum," a live radio call-in program produced by NPR California affiliate KQED, on Wednesday included an interview with Dr. Paul Farmer, co-founder of the nongovernmental health care organization Partners in Health (Krasny, "Forum," KQED, 4/7). Farmer, a Harvard Medical School professor and medical anthropologist, has been an advocate for providing complex treatments -- including treatments for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis -- to the world's poorest people. For 20 years, Farmer has lived and worked in Haiti and has been critical of human rights groups that concentrate more on political rights than basic health care needs (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 10/16/03). In the KQED interview, Farmer discussed his background, the philosophy behind his efforts and stories from his work. Farmer said that "it is absurd" that approximately six million people will die of AIDS-related illnesses, TB and malaria this year and that "everybody should have a role in ... taking on illness and health as a human right." When asked about the cultural, social and economic barriers to fighting HIV, Farmer said that health officials should "broaden" their view of HIV prevention and "complement the traditional" work with efforts to create economic opportunities for high-risk groups ("Forum," KQED, 4/7).

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