Malawi: Aids deaths drop

Distributing free anti-HIV drugs in a district of Aids-ravaged Malawi helped cut the death toll by 10 percent within eight months, according to a study published on Saturday by The Lancet. The southern African country introduced free anti-retroviral therapy from 2004, thanks to help from the Global Fund for Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and by 2006 the drugs were reaching more than 80 000 patients.