Fifty heads of state in Africa have vowed to reserve at least 15% of their annual budget for healthcare and lift tariff barriers on AIDS-related programs, AFP reports.
The action came at the end of a two-day HIV/AIDS summit, the largest in Africa’s history.
“We consider AIDS as a state of emergency in the continent. To this end, all tariff and economic barriers to access to funding of AIDS-related activities should be lifted,” the statement issued in Nigeria’s capital said. “We also resolve to take immediate action to use tax exemption and other incentives to reduce the prices of drugs and all other inputs in healthcare services,” it continued.
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