HIV/AIDS testing and drug prices reduced

GABON: HIV/AIDS testing and drug prices reduced

JOHANNESBURG, 11 Jun 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Gabon has announced a further reduction in the price of anti-AIDS treatment and HIV testing following a Global AIDS Fund pledge of US $3 million to tackle the pandemic.

Some 1,600 people currently receive government-subsidised antiretroviral therapy in Gabon, where an estimated 7.7 percent of the 1.2 million population are HIV-positive.

"This benefits the jobless people like me, and makes us follow our treatments regularly. It also reduces the inequalities in treatment that used to exist in hospitals," an HIV-positive woman, who preferred not to be named, told the UN news service, PlusNews.

Despite the country's relative wealth, based on offshore oil production that is now declining, more than a third of the population live on a minimum wage of less than US $80 per month.

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