NIGERIA: US to boost AIDS treatment and prevention programmes

The US is expected to allocate $61 million to Nigeria's HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programmes in 2005, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced.

Dawn Liberi, Nigeria mission director for USAID, said the funds were part of the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a five-year $15 billion programme that directs funding for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa and the Caribbean.

Agence France-Presse quoted Liberi as saying: "The government of the United States ... will reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS through sustainable treatment, care and prevention programmes reaching 25 percent of Nigerians by [the end of] 2005."

PEPFAR aims to provide anti-AIDS drugs to 350,000 HIV-positive Nigerians, prevent 1.1 million new infections, and provide care and support to 1.7 million people affected by the disease, including 400,000 orphans, this year.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

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