Meeting for basis of US AIDS plan

Talks to strengthen laboratory techniques and practices in the fight against HIV/AIDS are currently under way in the Botswana capital, Gaborone. The week-long meeting is part of US efforts to establish the platform for President George W Bush's 5-year global emergency AIDS plan, the US embassy in Gaborone said in a statement. Bush's AIDS plan aims to prevent seven million new infections, treat two million people and care for one million people living with HIV/AIDS, including orphans. "This can only be supported by laboratories that are performing at the best possible level," the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) director, Dr Peter Kilmarx, confirmed. Physicians, scientists and laboratory workers from 18 African countries will visit the Botswana-Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory in Gaborone, which helped to design an HIV vaccine currently being tested in both countries.