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RWANDA: Thompson pledges AIDS support

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 4 December (PLUSNEWS) - The US secretary for health and human services, Tommy Thompson, has promised to mobilise funds for HIV/AIDS programmes in Rwanda and secure antiretroviral drugs for people living with the disease.

The pledge came on the second leg of Thompson's current four-nation tour of Africa to assess HIV/AIDS projects and determine what was needed to increase treatment and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

"We want to see what programmes are working, and then fund those programmes, and be able to get antiretroviral drugs to people that need them as soon as possible," he told reporters in the capital, Kigali.

An estimated 13 percent of Rwanda's 8.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, but research shows that only a handful have access to antiretroviral drugs.

[ENDS]

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