Govt on track to exceed ARV provision target

About 140,000 Kenyans living with HIV/AIDS will be receiving anti-AIDS drugs by the end of 2006, the government has said. According to the local East African Standard newspaper, health minister Charity Ngilu announced this week that the state hopes to exceed the target of having at least 100,000 patients on antiretrovirals (ARVs) by December. "We have the drugs, the resources and we are committed to achieving this target," she was quoted as saying. By the end of 2005 about 60,000 patients of a targeted 95,000 were taking the life-prolonging medication. Ngilu said it was a remarkable achievement, given that there were only 3,000 people on ARVs in 2003. The number of children on treatment also increased from 1,200 to 4,000 between June and December 2005.