Free HIV/AIDS drugs ruled out

The government will not offer free HIV/AIDS drugs to more than 200,000 Kenyans urgently in need of treatment, assistant health minister Gedion Konchella has said. Konchella said people living with HIV/AIDS would instead have to pay for the treatment, despite all district hospitals receiving antiretroviral drugs by the end of the month. The government decision has drawn criticism from a women's AIDS NGO, the Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA). Local newspaper, The Nation quoted the KENWA executive director, Asunta Wagura, as saying: "This is a slap in the face, and betrayal by the government, since those infected had earlier been promised free antiretroviral drugs following funding from the Global AIDS Fund." Wagura challenged the government to commit to a free nationwide drug rollout during the upcoming 13th International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), being held in Nairobi from 21 to 26 September.