Concern over AIDS treatment delays

Malawians needing anti-AIDS treatment have been placed on waiting lists due to the government's drug rollout plan being plagued by delays. Although the national treatment programme was implemented more than 10 years ago, the Malawi Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (MANET+) said there had been delays of up to six months in some areas. MANET+ director Victor Kamanga told a radio station operated by the Malawi Institute of Journalism that people in the advanced stage of AIDS infection and in urgent need of antiretrovirals were being turned away. The government recently said it planed to use US $20 million from the Global Fund to treat 44,000 HIV-positive people by the end of June 2005.