Government expenditure for AIDS patients in Sri Lanka declined between 2007 and 2009

The Sri Lankan government has revealed in parliament that the cost incurred to treat AIDS patients has declined from 2007 to 2009.

In response to an oral question by ruling party parliamentarian Dr. Rohana Pushpakumara, it was stated that while the government had spent an estimated Rs 183,000 in 2007 and 2008 to treat AIDS patients, it has been reduced to Rs. 57,000 in 2009.
The National STD-AIDS control programme conducts 29 full time clinics and 19 clinics in its branches throughout the island.

It was also informed that 44 babies had contracted AIDS from their infected mothers in 2007 and 2008 alone.

The health authorities had identified 1,249 infected persons in Sri Lanka during the period 1987 to June 2010 out of which there had been 212 fatalities.