Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 12/5/2003

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U N I T E D N A T I O N S

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

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CONTENT:

1 - UGANDA: Programme launched to boost ARV treatment capacity

1 - UGANDA: Programme launched to boost ARV treatment capacity

KAMPALA, 5 December (PLUSNEWS) - Uganda’s health ministry, in partnership

with the US Agency for International Development (USAID), on Thursday

launched a three-year programme to build an infrastructure for local

organisations to provide anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy throughout the

country.

Health Minister Brig Jim Muhwezi signed the US $6.2 million deal with

Connie Newman, USAID's Assistant Administrator for Africa and Uganda's

Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC)

boss Dr Mugyenyi. The deal is a preamble to the launch of ARV

services in 22 sites across Uganda.

It is believed that roughly 200,000 of the 1.1 million people living with

HIV in Uganda need life-extending ARV therapy, yet only a handful of sites

are currently able to provide comprehensive ARV services. The new

initiative aims to make treatment readily available to 60,000 people in

the lifespan of the programme.

It also includes testing and counselling services as well as the ARV drugs

themselves, which have had about US $2 million earmarked for them.

Dr Akol Zainbe, a ministry official working on the programme, told

PlusNews there were no known restrictions placed on who Uganda is

permitted to purchase the drugs from.

" As I understand it, in this specific deal we will be buying both branded

and generic copies of antiretroval drugs and that is largely up to us, "

she said.

[ENDS]

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