Apples for Health- China to distribute new AIDS drugs

China to distribute new AIDS drugs

BEIJING, Jan. 20 (UPI) -- Chinese health officials said new AIDS drugs will be distributed to combat resistance to first-line anti-retroviral drugs.

The Ministry of Health said two new second-line anti-retroviral drugs-- TDF and Kaletra-- will be distributed for free, Xinhua news service reported Tuesday. The medicines, which are imported, cost two to three times more than first-line drugs.

The government has offered free AIDS drugs to 58,000 patients since 2003. Health officials said the mortality rate among China's AIDS patients dropped from 28.7 percent in 2002 to 5.8 percent in 2007, the China Daily newspaper said.

Only nine of more than 20 kinds of anti-AIDS drugs are available in China, an official with the National Center for AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Disease Control and Prevention in Washington said.