AHF Mourns Dr. Paul Farmer, Global AIDS Treatment Champion

Global nonprofit AIDS care provider salutes cofounder of Partners in Health for his tireless work helping people living with HIV around the world access lifesaving antiretroviral medications

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) mourns the death of Dr. Paul Farmer, a global exemplar helping people in poor countries access lifesaving AIDS treatment long before many in the field thought it practical or possible. Farmer, 62, was cofounder of Partners in Health , a 35-year-old global nonprofit organization delivering health care to the world’s poorest places and partnering with local governments to bring about global change. He died in his sleep in Rwanda early Monday, according to multiple news sources.

“As a doctor, but most of all as a human being, Paul Farmer was a tireless champion of access to lifesaving antiretroviral treatments personally travelling to countries across the globe to deliver medicine and care,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AHF, the largest global AIDS organization currently caring for over 1.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 45 countries around the globe. “Farmer was deeply committed to universal access to treatment for HIV and AIDS. He will be sorely missed but leaves a legacy of decades-long leadership in Partners in Health.”

According to the New York Times, “His work with Partners in Health significantly influenced public health strategies for responding to tuberculosis, H.I.V. and Ebola. During the AIDS crisis in Haiti, he went door to door to deliver antiviral medication, confounding many in the medical field who believed it would be impossible for poor rural people to survive the disease.”

About AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1.7 million people in 45 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare.