Murdoch arrived in India July 30 and met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, head of the ruling Congress party, before traveling to M

A wage-bill imposed by international donor institutions on poor country is complicating the roll-out of an effective antiretroviral treatment plan to reach millions of needy recipients, Médecins Sans Frontière (MSF) has said.

Experts from the medical charity told the XVII International Aids Conference in Mexico that the wage-bill has blocked efforts by some countries like Rwanda to recruit qualified staff to manage the ART programme.

An estimated 70 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS who need antiretroviral therapy (ART) are still not receiving it, and MSF says the growing numbers of those who have been started on ART have only increased the burden on existing health care staff.

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The main hurdles here, according to MSF, are wage-bill restrictions or salary freezes dictated by the International Monetary Fund, Ministers of Finance, the World Bank, or health-reform strategists that "block employment of extra health staff as well as the use of international funds for salary increases in the public sector".