Expansion of free anti-AIDS drug plan

At least 3,000 more HIV-positive people in Uganda will benefit from The AIDS Support Organisation's (TASO) free antiretroviral drug programme. TASO executive director Alex Coutinho said the organisation had received US $3.6 million from the US President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to fund the first phase of the drug rollout. The support group recently expressed concern that only 1,500 of its 30,000 patients were receiving anti-AIDS treatment. Coutinho told a local newspaper, New Vision, that with additional funding, TASO hoped to increase the number of people on treatment to about 7,000 by 2005 and up to 10,000 in 2006.