KZN AIDS drug roll-out within weeks

The rollout of antiretroviral drugs in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province could begin in a "matter of weeks", health minister for the province, Zweli Mkhize, has said. Describing it as "the largest" rollout in the world, the minister estimated that 75,000 people would be reached in 2004 and 2005, but expressed concern that this figure only constituted half the number of people currently in need of the medication. Mkhize told a local news service, BuaNews, that the initial rollout would start at 21 hospitals in the cities of Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Empangeni and Newcastle.