Tanzania Plans AIDS Drugs Distribution for October

Ali Mwinyi, deputy minister in the Health Ministry of Tanzania, said Friday that his nation hopes to start distributing free HIV/AIDS drugs to patients in October. A priority will be getting help to specific groups, especially pregnant women, he said. Some 70,000 Tanzanian babies are born with HIV each year. "We have several entry points -- women in the [Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission program], children and spouses of these women, and people who are in hospital with AIDS," Mwinyi said. The government will continue with existing prevention measures, such as promoting condom use and treating STDs. Tanzania will spend $500 million in the next five years to provide the drugs, Mwinyi said, using funds provided by the World Health Organization, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Bill Clinton Foundation, and the Presidential Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.

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