Increased AIDS treatment on the cards

Tanzania plans to increase the number of people on anti-AIDS treatment from 4,000 to 44,000 by the end of this year, with the help of international donors. According to Health Minister Anna Abdallah, the government and US officials signed an agreement earlier this week for the procurement and distribution of antiretroviral drugs under US President George W Bush's $15 billion plan for AIDS relief in developing countries. With an estimated 200,000 people in urgent need of antiretroviral therapy, Tanzania has requested $80 million from the US for 2005, compared to the $49 million it received last year. Abdallah told Reuters that her department intended to raise the country's treatment numbers to 500,000 by 2008.