Addis Ababa — Israel is to train Ethiopian medical doctors and nurses on treatement of AIDS patients as per the emergency plan initiated by US President George W. Bush, ynetnews.com reported.

In Ethiopia, out of the four million people living with the virus, only about 10 thousand of them receive treatment for the virus, it said.

As part of an emergency plan initiated by President Bush, 100 million US dollars would be transferred to Ethiopia annually for the purchase of medicines, it added.

A major problem was that Ethiopia has shortage of medical doctors who are knowledgeable about the drugs and how to treat HIV patients, it said. Israel decided to give a hand in the struggle against the deadly epidemic in training Ethiopian medical doctors on the subject.

The report said the first envoy of 11 Ethiopian medical doctors arrived in Israel this week from Addis Ababa. They were expected to undergo training in the AIDS clinics at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Centre, Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, and the Central Virology Laboratory at the Sheba Medical Centre in Tel-Hashomer.