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Global AIDS drug plan taking shape

    JOHANNESBURG

    The establishment of a new method of buying HIV/AIDS drugs could soon be under way, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

    The approach currently being shaped by the new WHO Director General, Jong-wook Lee, and a group of tuberculosis experts, is based on past plans to improve access to tuberculosis (TB) treatment.

    WHO's "TB Drug Facility", a programme for distributing TB drugs, has received international praise by calling for bulk purchases of drugs on behalf of countries and has reached nearly 2 million TB patients over the past two years.

    Lee recently pledged to make antiretroviral treatment available to some three million people living with HIV/AIDS by 2005.

    "The main issue is getting drugs to patients, and we've got to make it more rapidly available," WHO adviser Ian Smith said in a statement.

    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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