Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 1/20/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - SIERRA LEONE: 300 people to receive free antiretroviral drugs

1 - SIERRA LEONE: 300 people to receive free antiretroviral drugs

FREETOWN, 20 January (PLUSNEWS) - The government of Sierra Leone has

launched a programme to provide free antiretrovial (ARV) drugs to 300

people living with AIDS, Professor Sidi Alghali, director of the National

AIDS Secretariat (NAS) said.

He told a workshop for training medical staff in the use of ARV drugs that

15 people had already started receiving the medication, which prolongs the

life of people living with AIDS and improves their state of health.

Alghali said the government had provided US $180,000 to fund the initial

one-year programme, which was being run by the Sierra Leone Treatment

Action Group (SILTAG), a local non-governmental organisation.

Dr Brima Kargbo, the leader of the treatment team at NAS, said his

organisation had so far identified 206 people living with AIDS in Sierra

Leone.

About 28 of them were presently receiving antiretroviral treatment from

private medical practitioners, but they were having to pay about 220,000

Leones ($73) per month for their drugs, he added.

This government-sponsored programme uses the generic drugs Tiomune and

Duvoir, which are produced in India and are much cheaper.

Kargbo said this treatment - delivered free to people living with AIDS -

would cost the government 47,600 Leones ($17) per patient per month.

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