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Debt relief to fuel AIDS battle

    JOHANNESBURG
    Debt relief by the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations will allow Zambia to use millions of dollars to provide free anti-AIDS drugs to HIV-positive people by the end of the year. The government recently scrapped the US $9 fee that people receiving treatment were required to pay each month. Finance Minister Ng'andu Magande told Reuters: "We realised that people were even unable to go for testing, let alone pay the small fee to access antiretrovirals." Some 13,000 of the estimated 200,000 people in urgent need of the life-prolonging drugs currently have access to them.

    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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