Nairobi, Dec 03: Seven major international companies with operations in Africa, including Tata Steel, today said they will expand HIV treatment and prevention programs in an effort to boost the fight against the disease. The companies - Angloamerican, Chevrontexaco, Daimlerchrysler, Eskom, Heineken, Lafarge and Tata Steel - will run the programs with their own money and funds from the Geneva-based global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, said the global business coalition on HIV/AIDS in a statement.

The programs will help build health care infrastructure in Africa, where 30 million of the 40 million infected worldwide live.

"We came to Africa to increase private-sector engagement in the war on HIV/AIDS, and this announcement is exactly the kind of innovative idea we want to promote," US health and human services secretary Tommy Thompson said in a statement.

"Leveraging the resources of companies in this way is a great new opportunity for communities to realize the opportunity of the global fund," said Thompson, who is leading a US delegation of health officials, lawmakers and business leaders on a tour of Africa that includes Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda. Bureau Report