Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said nations fighting AIDS need to reform their health-care systems to reach high-risk groups neglected during the past quarter century.

The U.S. government has failed to prevent the virus in blacks, who account for half of new infections, he said at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico City. In Africa, 30 percent of babies born to mothers with HIV are infected with the virus, though there are drugs that could cut the risks to less than 2 percent if widely available. He said his foundation will increase projects to reduce the infection rates.

Clinton, 61, who has made the fight against AIDS a focus of his post-White House career, said every health clinic should routinely test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, especially in developing countries where 80 percent of infected people don't know their status. He commended Mexico for passing legislation to increase access to health care, saying similar actions will help reduce the number of annual new HIV infections that reached 2.7 million people worldwide in 2007.

``AIDS is a very big dragon,'' Clinton said in a speech yesterday. ``The mythological dragon was slain by St. George, the original knight in shining armor, but this dragon must be slain instead by millions of millions of foot soldiers.''

About 56,300 people in the U.S. contract HIV each year, 40 percent more than previously forecast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported July 29. The higher estimate results from use of a new diagnostic test. Hardest hit are blacks, of whom 500,000 are infected.

`Wake-Up Call'

``For Americans, this should be a wake-up call that even as we keep working globally we need to do much more to fight AIDS at home, and I intended to do so with my foundation,'' Clinton said.

Clinton's foundation has worked to reduce the cost of treatment by 50 percent and help more than 1 million people get access to care by negotiating pricing deals with drugmakers. Its budget for international AIDS relief is almost as large as the U.S. government's budget was for those programs during his administration.

In the two years since the former president last spoke at the biennial meeting, his foundation has grown to more than 500 people with a $200 million budget from 50 people and $5 million. It also expanded its work last month to include reducing the cost of malaria drugs.

During his eight years as president, Clinton tripled the AIDS budget to $237 million for relief programs, according to the Menlo Park, California-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit health policy organization. Under President George W. Bush, AIDS funding has climbed to $6 billion in 2008.

Clashed With Congress

Clinton, a Democrat, was blocked on attempts to further increase AIDS funding while in office by a Republican-controlled Congress and by social stigmas about the disease and contraception, said Russell Riley, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia Miller Center of Public Affairs in Charlottesville.

The New York-based William J. Clinton Foundation's AIDS program, headed by former McKinsey & Co. consultant Anil Soni, focuses on increasing access to treatment by lowering the cost of generic drugs and improving health care services in developing countries.

Unlike other organizations, the foundation doesn't employ relief workers or buy drugs. Instead, it provides money, equipment and training for health care clinics in remote areas. By exploiting Clinton's contacts, the foundation persuades businesses to expand the availability of drugs and encourages government to spend more money on neglected areas such as preventing the transmission of HIV from mothers to their newborn children, Soni said in a July 18 interview.

`Foot in The Door'

``In terms of getting our foot in the door, President Clinton helps make that possible,'' said Soni. ``We have a position of trust with governments so they are willing to share a lot of information and we have an entrée to work with the CEOS.''

The foundation also has a staff of chemists who develop less expensive ways to manufacture drugs. For the drug efavirenz, sold by Bristol Myers-Squibb Co. as Sustiva, the chemists found an alternative chemical pathway in the synthesis process to replace an expensive catalyst with a cheaper, zinc-based one, Soni said.

About 60 percent of the foundation's AIDS money comes from a program called Unitaid, funded by an airline ticket tax on flights out of France, Chile, and six other countries. The remainder comes from private donors, such as the singer Elton John and the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

``They've really made a difference,'' said Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS. ``I'm impressed that they've got such solid knowledge of every step in the production process and they shave off a few cents here and there and offer that to low- income countries.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Shannon Pettypiece in New York at spettypiece@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: August 5, 2008 00:01 EDT