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Dr.
Matthew Anderson, assistant professor of family medicine at Albert
Einstein College spent his six-month grant at an HIV clinic in
Guatemala in spring 1999 attempting to alleviate the suffering
of impoverished HIV and AIDS patients. For three years before
his grant, Dr. Anderson had been spending his spare time locating
recycled HIV medicines to send to the clinic. "We didn't think
we were doing a lot of good because such small quantities were
being sent," he explained. "But when you're in the clinic, you
see how far those small quantities can go." Many of his patients
had difficulty paying even small sums for the medicines they desperately
needed to keep themselves alive--and many would soon die as a
result.
In response to this need for more medication, the scholar assisted
the clinic and local AIDS organizations in establishing an HIV
medicine bank, which will more efficiently collect donated medicines
and distribute them, free of charge, to HIV-positive patients
at the two major public hospitals in Guatemala City.
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