Former President Clinton Visits Dominican Republic as Part of Tour of Foundation-Funded HIV/AIDS Projects

Former President Clinton on Tuesday visited a hospital in the Dominican Republic that provides treatment to HIV-positive children as part of an eight-day global tour of projects funded by the Clinton Foundation, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. Clinton toured a playroom and the pediatric HIV/AIDS ward at the Robert Reid Cabral Children's Hospital in Santo Domingo, which an administrator said provides care to about 610 HIV-positive children and teenagers. About one-fourth of the children receive antiretroviral treatment. "It's an impressive facility," Clinton said, adding, "They do important work here."

The foundation aims to more than double the number of Dominican children who have access to antiretroviral drugs, open rural clinics and train doctors in the country, as well as in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the AP/Chronicle reports. Clinton was scheduled to go to South Africa after meeting with Dominican President Leonel Fernandez. His tour also will include stops in Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania. According to the AP/Chronicle, the trip follows a $1.25 million grant from Estee Lauder-owned MAC Cosmetics to the Clinton Foundation for HIV/AIDS programs in the Caribbean (Katz, AP/Houston Chronicle, 7/18).

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