UN AIDS chief urges more treatment

UGANDA: UN AIDS chief urges more treatment

JOHANNESBURG, 2 Aug 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - A senior UN official has urged Uganda to increase its target of placing 60,000 people on anti-AIDS treatment by 2005 to at least 100,000.

Stephen Lewis, the UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa who is visiting the east African country to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS, said the target was "far too low".

"I believe that target should be raised to 100,000 people," he urged. "Everything I have seen persuades me that target can be reached - I got a very strong sense that Uganda could again be in a leadership position on this issue."

Although the country boasts success in reducing its HIV infection rate from more than 30 percent in the early 1990s to around 6 percent in 2003, an estimated 1.2 million people still live with HIV/AIDS.

[ENDS]

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