Free anti-AIDS drugs before December

Tanzania hopes to start distributing free antiretroviral drugs to people living with HIV/AIDS by October, the Ministry of Health has said. Special priority would be given to expectant mothers, as around 70,000 HIV-positive babies were born each year, said deputy health minister Ali Mwinyi. "We have several entry points: women in the [prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme]; children and spouses of these women; and people who are in hospital with HIV/AIDS," Reuters quoted Mwinyi as saying. Tanzania is expected to spend US $500 million in the next five years to provide the drugs, using funds from the World Health Organisation, the Global AIDS Fund, the Bill Clinton Foundation and the US Presidential Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief.