Concluding the Power 100 Summit on January 5 was former Majority Leader of the US Senate and current co-chair of the ONE Vote ‘08 (http://www.onevote08.org/), Bill Frist, M.D.

Despite the fact that Frist is no longer in office, he continues to work all over the world instituting his policy of “medicine as a currency for peace” in countries throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Asian subcontinent. Frist spoke to the Power 100 on the issues plaguing these regions, such as lack of access to clean drinking water which contributes to the accumulation of diseases such as malaria and cholera; the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which he says can be drastically reduced by both education and prevention; and finally, the overall lack of healthcare in these regions. (Because of this lack of health care, deaths frequently result from health issues like hernias and diarrhea, both of which are problems easily fixed in places with adequate healthcare.) The true tragedy in all this, is just how preventable such deaths are. Just one example are oral rehydration therapy (ORT) tablets which literally cost just pennies, and yet can replace a day’s worth of water lost from diarrhea when taken with clean water.

Frist enthusiastically encourages members of the ONE Campaign to continue to put pressure on their representatives in Congress to ensure that these avoidable deaths in the poorest areas of the world are substantially reduced.

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