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ZAMBIA: Millions needed to fight HIV/AIDS - minister

    JOHANNESBURG

    The Zambian government on Monday said it needed US $270 million over the next three years to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

    Finance Minister, Emmanuel Kasonde said that Zambia needed to raise the money from foreign donors and local sources to provide free HIV/AIDS drugs and expand existing programmes aimed at reducing infection and caring for children orphaned by AIDS.

    "HIV/AIDS has become one of the major causes of illness and death among the young and middle-aged adults, depriving households and society of critical human resource base," Reuters reported Kasonde as saying.

    In a related development, the government also announced a US $26 million programme to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

    However, a local AIDS lobby group, KARA Trust, said despite this announcement, the authorities had yet to act on an earlier promise to provide antiretrovirals to 10,000 people living with the disease.

    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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