Kampala  - Uganda on Thursday said it had begun a programme to more than double the number of people receiving AIDS drugs to 300,000.

The total number of patients currently receiving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) stands at 125,000, including 13,000 children below the age of 12.

"We have to scale up treatment ... we have to do this quickly as we would be a chasing a mirage because the number of people getting infected has increased," Dr David Kihumuro-Apuuri, director general of the government-run Uganda AIDS Commission, told reporters.

The number of people infected with the AIDS virus in the East African nation stood at about 80,000 annually eight years ago but has risen to 130,000.

About a million people have died from AIDS in the country since it was diagnosed during the early 1980s, while a similar number have the virus that causes the disease.

The Ugandan government said it will also change the criteria for when to start treatment.

Until now, patients would begin receiving treatment when their CD4 count - a glycoprotein used to determine when to begin treatment - fell below 200.

Now, patients will qualify for treatment when their CD4 count falls below 350. (dpa)