Let’s fight ‘modern plagues’ together — Clinton

Besides this, the President said that he had asked the US Congress to grant about one billion dollars to take up vaccine research projects to benefit people in developing countries, which have been facing a threat from TB, malaria and AIDS.

Clinton, accompanied by his daughter Chelsea, a 100-member US delegation and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, drove straight from the airport to the multi-speciality hospital at 11:05 am, 15 minutes behind schedule.

The President first went inside a ward and administered the last doses of TB medicine to three patients – Chaitanya, a 12-year-old girl, Niteswari, an 18-year-old woman and Mohammad Mahaboob, a 35-year-old autorickshaw driver – who were taking treatment under Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS).

Later, the patients were declared cured of TB.

The President also administered oral polio vaccine to a nine month-old baby, Sandhya. Funded by the World Bank and World Heath Organisation, the hospital has been implementing DOTS programme since September 1994.

Dwelling at length on this year’s theme of the World TB Day, ‘Forging new partnership to stop TB’, Clinton recalled how India, with the help of the US brought about the green revolution a few decades ago.

In his brief 10 minute speech, he said: "Now we have to fight to free humanity from these diseases in the new century".

Clinton had a lot of appreciation for India as well as Andhra Pradesh. He commended Prime Minister A B Vajpayee for focussing his attention on fighting AIDS. Similarly, he expressed happiness on being told by AP Health Minister S Aruna that the number of polio cases fell from 27,000 in 1987 to mere 1,000 now and that there were no new cases of polio this year in the State.

He said this was possible as India had collaborated with a host of international agencies like WHO, US Aid, DFID, Rotary and Gates foundation. He hoped that these partnerships would yield new results in the coming years. India gained out of similar cooperation during its green revolution.

"Especially, US Aid helped India in many ways. It encouraged education, helped parents decide their family size and promoted IITs. US aid is critical as US and India embark on a new dynamic relationship," Clinton said and mentioned how the Internet helped students improve their knowledge.

At the same time, Clinton paid rich tributes to Indian scientists and doctors for their "pioneering work" in controlling TB in the old days. This work was used even by the US. "This only proved that the two countries can fight together against killer diseases," he said.

Expressing concern over the heavy toll taken by infectious diseases, Clinton said that TB, detected 118 year ago, killed more people than ever. In India, it killed one person every minute. Even malaria, which is prevalent in India and Africa was on the rise.

Similarly, AIDS has assumed global proportions today. "It is easier to talk about AIDS than watch our children die. India is not waiting to act. But US is helping in combating AIDS, a killer disease for which there is no cure yet," Clinton said.

However, the President was happy that India was able to meet these challenges. "From Delhi to Hyderabad, I have seen how many villages are able to benefit out of technological advancement," he said and complimented the work done by private and governmental agencies.

Earlier, Aruna said that DOTS was being implemented in two districts of AP – Hyderabad and Medak since 1995. So far, 17,500 patients had been put on DOTS and eight out of every ten patients had been successfully treated, thus saving 3,000 lives so far.

Mahavir Hospital, which was founded in 1978, has so far treated about 1,000 TB patients. K J R Murthy, DOTS-in-charge at the hospital, explained to Clinton about the salient features of the treatment. The US President handed over Isonex and Riphampicine tablets to the patients.