Continent's HIV/AIDS programmes receive a boost

Just a month after presenting a bill that could allow Canadian manufacturers to export cheaper generic anti-AIDS drugs, the government announced on Monday it was contributing up to US $77 million over five years to African HIV/AIDS projects. Initial allocations of about US $27 million will go to Tanzania and Mozambique, where prevalence rates are among the highest in the world, and benefit "African-led" care, treatment, support and prevention programmes, a statement by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) said. "Canada is focusing its resources in hard-hit countries where we know we can, and are, making a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. No one person, institution, group or country, acting alone, can stop the spread of this tragic pandemic," Susan Whelan, Minister for International Cooperation, said in the statement. The government also threw its support behind the recently unveiled plan by the World Health Organisation to provide three million HIV-positive people in developing countries with antiretroviral therapy by the end of 2005. Last month Canada became the first developed country to take advantage of the August 2003 World Trade Organisation agreement that allows poorer countries to override patent laws when importing lower-cost generic medicines.