U.S. Expected To Allocate $61M for HIV/AIDS Treatment, Prevention Programs in Nigeria in 2005, USAID Official Says

The United States likely will allocate $61 million to Nigeria in 2005 for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention programs as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a senior U.S. official said in Lagos on Friday, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 1/28). PEPFAR is a five-year, $15 billion program that directs funding for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to 15 focus countries, including Botswana, Ethiopia, Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Haiti, Guyana and Vietnam (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 1/27). "The government of the United States ... will reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS through sustainable treatment, care and prevention programs reaching 25% of Nigerians by 2005," Dawn Liberi, Nigeria mission director for USAID, said. Liberi added that PEPFAR aims to provide antiretrovirals to 350,000 HIV-positive people, prevent 1.1 million new infections, and provide care and give support to 1.7 million people affected by HIV/AIDS, including 400,000 AIDS orphans in Nigeria in 2005, according to AFP/Yahoo! News. Liberi said that PEPFAR allocated $59 million for Nigeria in 2004 but expects to increase the amount to $61 million in 2005, according to AFP/Yahoo! News. For the remaining three years of PEPFAR, the amount allocated to Nigeria "will depend on the strength of the United States/Nigeria partnership and our ability to meet our targets," Liberi said. There are approximately four million HIV-positive Nigerians, but only 20,000 of the estimated 500,000 HIV-positive Nigerians who are in "desperate need" of antiretrovirals receive the drugs, AFP/Yahoo! News reports (AFP/Yahoo! News, 1/28).