Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Meeting at the White House with Gary Edson and Jay Lefkowitz. We discussed the details and implementation of the MTCT project. Obviously, there will be difficulties with USAID. They are resentful that DHHS is getting involved in international AIDS issues. Anne Peterson was at today’s meeting. I have no confidence that she or her staff are capable of successfully pulling off this program. Mark Dybul alone can do better than their whole group. Sorry for being so direct, but it is true. Of note is that I brought up to Gary Edson and Jay Lefkowitz the issue that I had discussed with Josh Bolten regarding the more Global plan of therapy, prevention for HIV and other diseases in a ”low-tech” manner. I discussed my meeting with Peter Mugyenyi and Cissy (?last name) from Uganda (see above). I told Jay and Gary that I believe that we could pull off a program based on the ”Mugyenyi model”. He told me to put together a proposal in a very short time frame (before the WH leaves for August break ( i.e. <2 weeks). They want to determine if the POTUS could bring this initiative with him on his upcoming trip to Africa in January, 2003. I will work with Mark Dybul to do this.