Nigeria triples number on free HIV drugs -agency

Nigeria triples number on free HIV drugs -agency: "LAGOS (Reuters) - A tripling of the number of Nigerian HIV treatment centres in a year has enabled 135,000 infected people to get free life-saving drugs, up from 40,000 a year ago, Nigeria's AIDS control agency said on Tuesday. But the country's ambitious plan to tackle HIV/AIDS failed to meet its targets last year, and the global voluntary group ActionAid has said that only 10 percent of Nigerians needing treatment are getting it. Around 3 million of Nigeria's 140 million people live with the deadly virus, giving the country the world's third highest number of HIV/AIDS sufferers after India and South Africa. 'As at the end of June, we had 210 free ARV (antiretroviral) treatment centres, and we had 135,837 people on treatment across the country,' Babatunde Osotimehin, director-general of the National Action Committee on AIDS, told Reuters. The number of centres, up from 74 a year ago, includes those run by Nigeria's development partners, he said. A failure to meet targets, and resulting funding problems, hit Nigeria's ambitious AIDS control plan to provide therapy for around 250,000 infected people by end-2006."