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Plans by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to provide anti-AIDS treatment to millions people in developing nations by the end of next year are falling behind due to the slow spending of funds.
The WHO goal is for three million people in Africa, Asia and Latin America to be taking antiretroviral drugs by 2005 at a cost of approximately US $6 billion.
"The problem is the money is not flowing as well as it should. We think the money is there, it's ready to go ... if these problems can be cleared up soon, we could see a pretty dramatic increase [in treatment] starting soon," said Dr Jim Yong Kim, director of WHO's HIV/AIDS department.
The UN health agency had hoped to cross the half-million mark on treatment by the end of June this year, but only 440,000 of the six million people in need had access to the 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