AIDS activists welcome new spending

South African AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), has welcomed the Ministry of Finance's recent allocation of increased resources for the provision of HIV/AIDS drugs in the public health sector. The total expenditure for HIV/AIDS treatment is now expected to exceed the estimated US $434 million spent from 2001/02 to the current 2003/04 financial year, with an additional $583 million allocated for 2005/06 and close to $700 million for 2006/07. In an official communiqué from its national executive, the TAC said: "Our rough calculations indicate that this is sufficient to roll out a comprehensive treatment programme, with the potential to meet the TAC's target of [reaching] at least 200,000 people by March 2005." However, the lobby group said they were "disappointed" by the delay in the release of the operational treatment plan, which was supposed to have been completed in September. The TAC said: "On average, at least 600 people die daily of HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Every week's delay results in more unnecessary lives lost... The budget ensured that we have the financial resources for the treatment rollout, but now we need to see the operational plans."