Lesotho will miss AIDS drug treatment target
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Lesotho will likely fail to meet its target of providing 28,000 HIV patients with life-prolonging drugs by the end of the year as part of a global attempt to boost AIDS treatment, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Lesotho’s target was part of a global programme to provide three million people with antiretroviral drugs by the end of 2005, but World Health Organisation global HIV/AIDS director Jim Kim said the tiny mountain kingdom had no chance of meeting it.
“I think Lesotho will not meet the 28,000 figure,” he told reporters in the capital Maseru. “But the current 6,500 figure is a start.”
Lack of money and lack of staff were the main factors, he said. Almost 30 percent of adults in the kingdom, enclosed entirely within South Africa’s borders, are HIV positive and many of Lesotho’s medical staff have already died.
Deaths of farmers have slashed agricultural production, while many children have been orphaned and the government has struggled to cope as it battles rising unemployment and the closure of textile factories.
Globally, Kim said having three million people on the AIDS drugs by the end of the year was achievable, despite some experts warning it was already out of reach.
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