East African activists are issuing a unified appeal to the leaders of the Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Scotland: Africa needs money to fight AIDS. "There is a need for more funds. Whatever the G8 releases for this purpose will be of great help," said Almaw Bekelle, an Ethiopian medic. "But we should not take it for granted the money is going to be a solution unless we at the respective countries do more in reversing the trend of the spread of the virus."

Kenya's government is embroiled in a controversy over graft, and AIDS officials there are concerned about how AIDS money would be spent. Dorothy Onyango is a member of Kenya's government-run National AIDS Control Council, which has been criticized in the past for misusing money sent for patients. "[The] G8 meeting of leaders, pushing for the eradication of poverty and AIDS in Africa, is a good thing in itself. It is the best way to campaign against these ills, but the only regret is that 80 percent of that money goes to administrative costs. Very little of that amount goes to the women, who are the most vulnerable in the Africa society," said Onyango, who also heads Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya.

Except for Somalia, most east African countries have begun dispensing free AIDS drugs to a very small percentage of patients. More funding to raise that percentage is hoped for.

Tanzanian Finance Minister Basil Mramba said that since an important part of its foreign debt has been forgiven, the nation will have more money to devote to improving its infrastructure and fighting AIDS.

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