Clinton discusses global HIV efforts with South African officials during 11-day African tour

Aug 8 2012

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday visited officials in South Africa and discussed the response to HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press/Huffington Post reports. Speaking with Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane "in the second cabinet-level strategic dialogue between the two nations," Clinton said "that global efforts to stop the virus 'have saved hundreds of thousands of lives,'" the news service writes. "In South Africa, 5.7 million people -- 17.8 percent of the population -- have tested positive for HIV," and PEPFAR "has spent $3.2 billion on antiretroviral drugs and HIV prevention programs in [the country] since 2004," according to the AP.

"On Wednesday in Cape Town, Clinton will preside at a ceremony at which the U.S. will begin shifting administrative control of [some PEPFAR-funded programs] to the South Africans," a handover that will take five years, according to the news service. "Clinton is in South Africa at the midpoint of an 11-day tour that has already taken her to Senegal, Uganda, South Sudan, Kenya and Malawi," the AP notes (Lee, 8/7).