NIGERIA: AIDS drug shortage despite local production

Thousands of HIV-positive Nigerians are caught in the country's rapidly accelerating AIDS spiral, with little or no access to affordable treatment, Agence France Press reports.

This was despite an Indian firm being recently licensed to produce low-cost antiretroviral drugs locally.

The government in 2001 imported anti-AIDS drugs worth US $4 million from India to treat 10,000 adults and 5,000 children living with HIV/AIDS.

But as world leaders and health experts prepare to meet in Bangkok for the upcoming 15th International AIDS Conference, activists and doctors warned that efforts had fallen far short of meeting the challenge.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews, Other,

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