UN lauds free anti-AIDS treatment expansion

ZAMBIA: UN lauds free anti-AIDS treatment expansion

JOHANNESBURG, 15 Feb 2005 (PLUSNEWS) - Zambia's recently announced plan to make free anti-AIDS treatment available to all its HIV-positive citizens has received praise from the UN.

According to Stephan Lewis, the UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, the treatment expansion was due in part to new support from the Global AIDS Fund, and laudable government efforts.

"Everywhere I went, people were clamouring for free treatment ... The collective, cumulative sense I had was of a country on the move against the pandemic - the shift in the response was palpable," Lewis said in a statement.

Free treatment was previously only available in parts of the capital, Lusaka. Monthly treatment in rural areas cost US $8, and upwards of $30 when transportation and lab costs were taken into account.

[ENDS]

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