Antiretroviral medicine was introduced in 1996. ARVs are a treatment, not a cure. ARV medication must be taken diligently and for life. When the medicine was first available it cost about $10,000 a year, a cost prohibitive for most in the developing world. Organizations such as the Clinton Global Initiative have worked tirelessly to decrease those costs. Today that cost is around $140 a year. That’s 40 cents a day. Yet more than 70% of people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $2 a day.
