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Free drugs for HIV-positive in 2005

Uganda will provide some 60,000 HIV-positive people with free anti-AIDS drugs from 2005, the Minister of State for Health, Mike Mukula has said. During a recent press conference in the capital, Kampala, Mukula said HIV/AIDS had become a threat to the country's security and economy because it had affected the most productive part of the population. The minister said 2.2 million Ugandans were living with HIV/AIDS, while an estimated 120,000 were in the advanced stages of AIDS infection, according to a local newspaper, The Monitor. Uganda has achieved remarkable success in in tackling the pandemic, cutting HIV infection rates from 30 percent in 1990 to about 5 percent at present.

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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