KAMPALA, Dec 2 (AFP) - The Ugandan health ministry Saturday announced a major reduction in the cost of anti-retrovirals, the drugs used to improve the health and prolong the life of those suffering from AIDS.

"It is my pleasure to announce to the country that we have agreed with the pharmaceutical companies on further price reductions," Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga told a news conference here.

"The price reductions for double therapy will range from 40-68 percent. In the case of triple therapy the reduction will range between 24-70 percent," he added.

With the latest reductions, announced the day after World AIDS Day, the new price range is between 86 dollars and 218 dollars per month for double therapy, a combination of two drugs used to fight HIV/AIDS, and 144-422 dollars a month for triple therapy, a three-drug combination.

The new prices have been arranged through negotiations betweeen UNAIDS, the UN multi-agency progamme formed to tackle the pandemic, and a number of pharmaceutical companies, including Glaxo Wellcome.

The price reduction is a continuation of the Drug Access Initiative, started in 1997, in which Uganda became one of four countries in the developing world to become part of programme to introduce anti-retroviral drugs in poor countries.

Some 1,500 people have had access to the drugs since the project was introduced.

AIDS control drugs are extremely expensive and normally cost 1,000 dollars per month for the triple therapy prescription.

As a result of the initial reductions negotiated in 1997 the price of anti-retrovirals was reduced to 214-321 dollars per month for double therapy and 380-602 dollars a month for triple therapy.

Anti-retrovirals do not cure AIDS, but can significantly prolong the life of people suffering from AIDS and those infected with the HIV virus, which causes the disease.

The drugs will continue to be available through five health centres in Kampala; Mulago Hospital, Nsambya Hospital, Rubaga Hospital and Mildmay Centre.

Kiyonga added that the government was now looking for funding to extend provision of the drugs to regional hospitals arond the country.

Uganda is however an extremely poor country with per capita income of just above 300 dollars and even with the reductions, the drugs will still be unaffordable to most HIV/AIDS sufferers.

"Even a reduction of 90 percent in the cost of these drugs would be insufficient," said Kiyonga.

According to Uganda's 2000 HIV/AIDS surveillance report, 1,438,000 people in Uganda are currently living with HIV or full-blown AIDs, while 838,000 people are believed to have died of the disease.

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