AIDS treatment goes global: the primary focus has shifted "from end-of-life hospice care to outpatient clinical care, as HIV-positive patients on new drug regimes [sustain] longer, healthier lives."

For instance, AHF has been a vital part of Uganda's success story in the fight against AIDS, as the country dramatically reduced its HIV rate from one of the continent's highest to one of the lowest, thanks, in part, to Uganda Cares, a partnership between AHF and the Ugandan Ministry of Health. Launched in 2001, it now serves close to 5,000 Ugandans who receive vital treatment at 11 AHF clinics throughout the country, including a pioneering facility in Kampala, the capital city, at the St. Balikuddembe Market, the largest marketplace in East Africa. Over the next year, the partnership plans to open 10 additional clinic sites in and around the capital.

Grace Akampumuza, 39, is one of Uganda's success stories. After her husband, two of her brothers, and many other close relatives died of AIDS, her own health began to fail in 2001. Left with three young HIV-negative children, she mustered the courage to get an HIV test, which confirmed what she had presumed: she was HIV positive. With few resources to pay for medicines at a private clinic, Akampumuza received little or no care and, at one point, fell into a coma.

"I heard about AIDS Healthcare Foundation, that this organization was giving free ARVs in Masaka," reveals a grateful Akampumuza, who began receiving care and antiretroviral treatment at AHF's clinic two hours southwest of Kampala. "Since that time, my life has changed. Treatment has saved my life. I am happy to see my children grow, because when I was going to die, my children were still very young."

With Africa's incredibly high rate of HIV infection, AHF saw firsthand the enormous need for trained medical staff, and responded with a creative solution by rolling out its HIV Medics program in 2004, which trains non-medical personnel to assist doctors and nurses in providing treatment. Lay people are taught in a 12-week intensive course to become helpers--taking medical histories, performing limited physical examinations, and dispensing medications under the supervision of a physician or nurse. The program has helped resource-constrained countries provide care to many more patients at a significantly lower cost.

Akampumuza herself became part of the expanding global mission when she trained as an HIV medic and joined Uganda Cares' staff. At one point, her weight had dropped to 92 pounds and her CD4--or T-cell count, an indicator of the immune system's ability to fight infection--had fallen to just 45. Akampumuza remarks, "After receiving treatment, my CD4 has risen to 486 and my weight is [165 lbs.]. I was an accountant, but ... thanks to AIDS Healthcare Foundation, I joined the medical profession. I am now an HIV medic and a trainer. Can you believe that?"

"Though there is a great deal to be encouraged about in the global fight against AIDS, it is still a fight we are losing," Weinstein stated when honored in November of 2005 by Keep A Child Alive, a New York AIDS organization focused on treatment of children and families in Africa. "AHF has 8,400 clients in treatment today in the developing world--that is about the same number of people who die of AIDS in the world every single day. We have the technical knowledge to stop AIDS; the only question is whether we have the will.... "