Nigeria Launching Largest AIDS Program

On Sept. 1, Nigeria plans to launch the largest AIDS treatment program in Africa using cheap generic drugs, a UN special envoy said. The 10,000 adults and 5,000 children who will receive the drug cocktail are just a tiny fraction of the more than 2.6 million Nigerians infected with HIV. But the Nigerian government's commitment demonstrates that within Africa efforts are under way to tackle the epidemic that has infected about 26.5 million people across the continent, said Stephen Lewis, special envoy of Secretary-General Kofi Annan for HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa with 123 million people. Botswana, which has a population of only 1.6 million but the world's highest rate of AIDS infections, will launch a treatment program using antiretroviral drugs in early 2002, Lewis said. Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo sent his health minister to India to negotiate with the pharmaceutical company Cipla, which makes generic AIDS drugs. In February, Cipla offered to sell a three-drug AIDS cocktail to African governments for $600 a year per patient. But the Nigerian health minister was able to negotiate a $350 a year per patient deal with Cipla, Lewis said.

The Nigerian government will subsidize about 80 percent of the cost, but patients who receive treatment will have to pay between $7 and $8 a month, Lewis said. Nigeria intends to use a six-drug regimen for 60 percent of the patients and a two-drug regimen for the other 40 percent, he said. The drugs are expected to have similar results, but the government will monitor and evaluate how patients cope with the different programs, which will be administered by Nigeria's teaching hospitals.

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