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Thompson pledges AIDS support

    JOHANNESBURG

    The US secretary for health and human services, Tommy Thompson, has promised to mobilise funds for HIV/AIDS programmes in Rwanda and secure antiretroviral drugs for people living with the disease.

    The pledge came on the second leg of Thompson's current four-nation tour of Africa to assess HIV/AIDS projects and determine what was needed to increase treatment and prevent the spread of the pandemic.

    "We want to see what programmes are working, and then fund those programmes, and be able to get antiretroviral drugs to people that need them as soon as possible," he told reporters in the capital, Kigali.

    An estimated 13 percent of Rwanda's 8.2 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, but research shows that only a handful have access to antiretroviral drugs.

    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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