Informant38

A very conscious decision has to be made.
At the Kisumu daytime clinic, only 36 out of the 1,200 patients who need HIV drugs to survive are able to get them today. Once the Global Fund- subsidized drugs reach the clinic, patients will get the chance to prolong their lives at a cost of $25 a month.

Yet that is still an extraordinary sum for a citizen of Kenya, where the per capita income is less than $300 a year. In the rural areas surrounding Kisumu, annual incomes hover around $50.

The good news that thousands of AIDS patients in Africa may soon have access to anti-viral drugs is tempered by the high cost of the drug and the growing realization that those communities that receive the medicines may be forced to decide who among them will live, and who will die.
�Sabin Russell /SFChronicle Dec.05.03