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No illegal sale of AIDS drugs

    JOHANNESBURG

    The executive director of Malawi's National AIDS Commission, Bizwick Mwale, has dismissed recent reports that some HIV/AIDS drugs were available on the black market.

    At a recent press conference in Blantyre, the country's main commercial and industrial centre, Mwale said it was impossible to purchase such drugs on the black market.

    "Some people mistake immune boosters or vitamins for AIDS drugs, but antiretrovirals are not on the black market. They are under control," he said.

    World Bank economist, Sudhir Chitali, recently estimated that some 95 percent of Malawi's economically active adults were living with HIV/AIDS.

    Research shows that only 2,000 to 2,500 out of an estimated 780,000 people requiring the HIV/AIDS drugs are currently able to access them in Malawi.

    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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