Saving Millions Of Lives Around The World (NAPSA)—Millions of people around the world maylive longer, healthier lives because of the efforts of leaders in the medical community and pharmaceutical industry. One goal these medical experts have set their sights on is preventing blindness. Some 5.5 million people living in impoverished communities with limited access to water and health care have lost their sight or are at high risk of going blind from trachoma, a progressive disease of the upper eyelid—and the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness. An additional 150 million people—three quarters of them children—have contracted trachoma and are in need of treatment. Fortunately, the International TrachomaInitiative (TD, a joint effort of Pfizer, a world leader in the pharmaceutical industry, and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, has donated $65 million to launch comprehensive prevention and treatment programs in Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Morocco and Vietnam. A critical component is Pfizer’s donation of its antibiotic Zithromax (azithromycin), which is effective in treating active infection with a single annual dose. Another medical problem in which great strides are being madeis AIDS. There are now more than 28 million people infected with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that includes someof the poorest countries in the world. 7 New efforts may treat and cure a common cause of blindness, plus prevent the spread of AIDS. That total constitutes more than 70 percent of all those living with HIV/AIDS worldwide. Thanks to new initiatives millions of people with AIDS maylive longer and millions of others may be saved from ever contracting the disease. Recently, Pfizer Chairman and CEO Hank McKinnell toured four countries in Africa as part of a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson. As a result of the trip, Pfizer is recruiting, training and equipping medical volunteers in South Africa to care for HIV-infected patients. In Mozambique and the Ivory Coast, Pfizer will distribute Diflucan, a treatment for two opportunistic infections of AIDS that the company is making available free of charge in 50 developing countries. To learn more about both these efforts, visit www.pfizer.com.
