Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company
The New
York Times
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August 27, 1999, Friday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 22; Column
4; Editorial Desk
LENGTH: 156 words
HEADLINE: AIDS Drugs for
Africa
BODY:
To the Editor:
Re "Drugs for AIDS in Africa"
(editorial, Aug. 23): You are right that because American taxpayer dollars have
been used to finance drug research, there should be more balance between the
intellectual-property rights of the American drug makers and
the urgent medical needs of the 35 million Africans infected with H.I.V.
Here's a sidebar to this story: American home care agencies and hospices
throw out unused medications at the time of death, including unopened
medications with long life spans. These medications are the exact ones that
African home care agencies and hospices are desperate for. Let's find a way to
recover these drugs safely from the hundreds of thousands of Americans who die
at home every year and get them to sub-Saharan Africa and other
medically needy regions.
PHIL DI SORBO
Schenectady, N.Y.,
Aug. 23, 1999
The writer is executive director of the Community
Hospice Inc.
http://www.nytimes.com
LOAD-DATE: August 27, 1999 
