Dealing with AIDS
While Yu was agonizing over how to raise the money to pay for the expensive drug cocktails used to treat the disease in 2004, there was a dramatic international breakthrough.
After repeatedly railing at American and European pharmaceuticals manufacturers for refusing to cut their prices and ignoring the lives of those in need in Africa, Kofi Annan, then the secretary general of the United Nations, ordered WHO to prepare to have generic versions of the patented drugs produced in India. He also ordered WHO to establish a global fund to raise money to buy the medicines. His objective was to reduce the cost of the drugs required to treat AIDS from US$120 per month to US$20 per month for patients in developing countries.
These actions led to enormous changes to medical care in Africa. Governments and international medical groups began tackling AIDS head on, establishing cooperative platforms that promoted and distributed medications in each region. The Taiwanese medical mission responsible for Malawi’s northern region acted quickly, establishing its AIDS treatment center, known as the Rainbow Clinic, in July 2004.
Taking AIDS treatment as its starting point, the team extended its efforts into arenas such as finance, social work, early childhood education, and public health, developing targeted approaches to dealing with each thread in the knotty mass of social issues surrounding the disease.
One of their first problems involved identifying patients. Because Malawi has no national ID system, tracking patients’ pharmaceuticals usage was difficult. The team therefore used support from Taiwan’s Department of Health to build a fingerprint recognition system, and linked fingerprints to patients’ medical records.
The next problem involved inadequate nutrition, which became obvious when patients’ conditions improved and their appetites increased. Yu applied to the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for nutritional assistance, and received supplements containing carbohydrates, protein, and fat, which he distributed to his child patients. He then monitored their arm circumference to see whether they were gaining any weight.
When children didn’t put on weight, the mission investigated. It found that the supplements were often being taken home and shared by entire families. It also learned further that many AIDS-stricken families had been left in poverty by a lack of job opportunities. In keeping with Yu’s desire to address problems at their root, the mission sought to increase employment by offering microloans to locals to start their own businesses.
Still another issue was linked to gender: men who contracted AIDS felt they had lost face, decreasing their willingness to seek treatment and increasing their mortality rates. This led to the emergence of “widow villages” and resulted in large numbers of orphans. To give children a better chance of themselves reaching adulthood, the mission decided to give priority to getting widowed mothers back on their feet.
Yu is a devout Christian for whom compassion for others is a core value.