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Secret AIDS report anger activists

    JOHANNESBURG

    HIV/AIDS information leaked from a South African government secret report suggests that a national treatment plan could save some 1,7 million lives by 2010.

    This follows months of frustration by the local Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), who say they have lost patience with the government's "ambivalence over HIV/AIDS drug programmes".

    A civil disobedience campaign demanding the implementation of a nationwide treatment plan by the government was recently suspended by the TAC.

    Zackie Achmat, the TAC leader, was quoted by local newspaper, The Mercury, as saying: "We were first told that the report would be ready in February, then in April. We suspended our civil disobedience campaign at the end of May and gave the government an opportunity to act on its own, without pressure."

    TAC has urged the support of a host of NGOs and politicians in calling for a meeting with government to discuss the report.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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