MALAWI: Senior UN official assess government AIDS drug roll out

The UN special envoy for AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, began a tour of Malawi this week to assess the government's rollout of free anti-AIDS drugs.

Agence France Presse quoted Mary Shaba, the permanent secretary for nutrition and HIV/AIDS in the health ministry, as saying: "The visit will help us scale up the antiretroviral treatment, because the programme is lacking drugs and we have shortages of personnel, especially nurses."

Since its launch earlier this year, the programme has reached 8,000 people and aims to treat 40,000 by 2005.

The Global AIDS Fund has pledged US $3 million to boost the treatment plan.

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