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South Africa's Eastern Cape Province recently launched its first free anti-AIDS drug rollout programme in the university city of Grahamstown.
Sizwe Kupelo, the provincial health spokesperson, said over the next six months some 2,700 people living with HIV/AIDS would benefit from the programme.
Kupelo was quoted by the South African Press Association as saying: "Clients will have to be screened for readiness, a process that will take two to four weeks. It is this screening process that will determine who is eligible for the drugs."
The provincial health department has allocated an annual budget of just over US $6 million for the rollout campaign in the region, where an estimated 530,000 people are living with the HI virus.
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