W.H.O. Aims to Treat 3 Million for AIDS
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

The World Health Organization called on developing countries yesterday to train and organize 100,000 health care and nonprofessional workers to carry out its plan to begin delivering antiretroviral drugs to three million AIDS patients by the end of 2005.

The organization, a United Nations agency, said 6 million of the 40 million people infected with the AIDS virus were in immediate need of antiretroviral treatment, but that only about 480,000 were receiving it.

The new program, which the organization said would cost at least $5.5 billion, is intended to reach half those in need by the end of 2005 ? two million more than would be reached by then without such a program.

In issuing a more detailed framework for its program, to coincide with World AIDS Day today, the organization also recommended four combinations of antiretroviral drugs that countries could use to start treatment. The list was vastly simplified from the 35 possible combinations the organization had recommended previously. All four combinations have been proved effective, though none include the powerful protease inhibitor drugs that are often prescribed in the United States and other wealthy countries.