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AIDS drug roadblock as hundreds die daily

    JOHANNESBURG

    While Ugandan officials fight over who should supply anti-AIDS drugs, the AIDS Commission is concerned over an acute shortage of the free life-prolonging medicines, a local newspaper, The Monitor, reported.

    Indian drug manufacturers Cipla Limited and Rambaxy Laboratories were short-listed by the government's HIV/AIDS Control Project to supply generic versions of the anti-AIDS drugs by last December.

    However, a struggle over whether or not one of the companies met the criteria for licensing has meant that the earliest the drugs could arrive would be 21 May 2004.

    Dr Kihumuro Apuuli, director general of the Uganda AIDS Commission, said: "These drugs were supposed to come at the end of the year. They are now coming to the middle of the year - all that time people are dying. Last year it was 70,000 - how many is that every day?"

    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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