Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

by Tracy Kidder

in 2003, only 300,000 people were being treated for AIDS in what is euphemistically called “the developing world.” At WHO, Jim created a campaign to increase the number treated to 3 million by 2005: He called the effort “3 by 5.” An impossible goal, many thought, and they were right. But by 2005, more than one million new patients were in treatment, and the total in Africa had increased eightfold. There’s no way to predict the ultimate effects of such a “failure,” but officials who two years before had been arguing against universal treatment for AIDS began to say they had been in favor of it all along. In the high councils of international health, the 3 by 5 campaign was, as Jim put it, “like a bowling ball thrown into a chess match.”