Gordon Irlam
326 A St
Redwood City, CA 94063
USA

Email: noreply@base.com
Phone / Fax: +1 (650) 364-6169


Miles D. White
Chairman and CEO
Abbott Laboratories
100 Abbott Park Road
Abbott Park, IL 60064

July 6, 2002


Dear Mr. Miles D. White,

As shareholder of 1,000 shares Abbott common stock, I wish to thank you for your recently announced initiative to provide access to HIV test kits to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Last year a spent some time visiting Tanzania, and got to see up close the tremendous human devastation being wrought by HIV throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The word tragedy doesn't begin to describe what I witnessed. Worldwide, an estimated 3 million died from AIDS last year. A death rate greater than the peak death rate during the Holocaust (an estimated 2.7 million Jews were killed during 1942). Today, anti-retroviral drugs only reach 4% of all people in need of them. Given the huge resources that went into their development, this outcome constitutes a huge institutional and societal failure.

I wish to personally thank both yourself and Abbott, for the steps you have taken, and that you continue to take, in helping address this key test of our common humanity.

Sincerely,



Gordon Irlam