$1bn spent fighting AIDS in Africa

NEARLY a billion dollars was spent fighting Africa’s AIDS war in 2002, almost twice as much as two years earlier, according to the agency UNAIDS.

But it stressed that, despite the improvement, the amount fell wretchedly short of what was needed - and warned that some countries had been so crippled by the pandemic that they risked instability.

Michel Adibe, a director at the UN’s AIDS agency who is in charge of country and regional support, said it was time to smash the myth that Africa was a forlorn case beyond help.