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UN lauds free anti-AIDS treatment expansion

    JOHANNESBURG

    Zambia's recently announced plan to make free anti-AIDS treatment available to all its HIV-positive citizens has received praise from the UN.

    According to Stephan Lewis, the UN Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Africa, the treatment expansion was due in part to new support from the Global AIDS Fund, and laudable government efforts.

    "Everywhere I went, people were clamouring for free treatment ... The collective, cumulative sense I had was of a country on the move against the pandemic - the shift in the response was palpable," Lewis said in a statement.

    Free treatment was previously only available in parts of the capital, Lusaka. Monthly treatment in rural areas cost US $8, and upwards of $30 when transportation and lab costs were taken into account.

    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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