quote:

---

(Lagos) Nigeria will give free anti-retrovirals to anyone in the country who needs them the government announced.

The country has the third highest HIV/AIDS rate in the world after South Africa and India. The government called it a "Christmas gift to the people", but the move comes on the heels of a scandal over the country's handling of meds that had been donated to the impoverished nation.

Last week Nigeria was accused of charging people for meds which had been donated and which were supposed have been distributed free. Doctors Without Borders said that meds Nigeria received from international aid groups were not being distributed to the people who can least afford them but instead were being being placed on the open market with prices that only the wealthy could afford.

The group said that the practice is leading many patients to break off treatment due to high costs. The result, Doctors Without Borders said, was that many PWAs may be developing resistance to the most common drugs.

Out of the officially estimated 3.6-million people in Nigeria infected with HIV, only 30,000 are on treatment. 

The revelations from Doctors Without Borders led to threats by international groups to cut off aid to Nigeria.

---

[ 26 December 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]