Lennox calls for an end to 'the tragedy of HIV'

SCOTS singer Annie Lennox has called for better access to HIV/AIDS treatment for people in developing countries.

She said it was "tragic" that the virus is passed on because many women did not have access to health care.

The former Eurythmics singer, an Oxfam ambassador, was speaking from the International AIDS Conference in Mexico.

Lennox, due to attend the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics in Edinburgh this month, said: "I feel it is a right of women to be able to give birth safely, and when a woman is HIV positive the baby can obviously have the virus transmitted before being born."

The singer said that medical facilities in some regions of Africa were "decimated" with two doctors for 500,000 people.