New Grants from UN-Backed Fund Will Boost Fight Against Aids, TB
and Malaria
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New York, Apr 28 2006 4:00PM
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,
strongly backed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
has called for a new round of grant proposals from countries
striving to combat the three scourges.
"Already, millions of people have benefited from the programmes
the Global Fund is financing around the world and hundreds of
thousands of people are alive today who otherwise might not have
been," said Richard Feachem, the Executive Director of the
Global Fund. "The launch of Round Six today allows us to main-
tain this vital momentum to win the battle against these three
pandemics."
A public/private partnership founded four years ago with the aim
of drastically scaling up the resources available to fight the
three diseases, the Global Fund currently mobilizes 20 per cent
of international financing to combat HIV/ AIDS, and 65 per cent
of all international funds invested in combating malaria and tu-
berculosis.
Around half of the Global Fund's financing is currently spent on
medicines such as antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, mosquito nets
for malarial prevention and other products, while the other half
is used for strengthening health services.
The launch of this sixth grant round enables countries to seek
funding for achieving global targets such as universal access to
AIDS treatment and prevention by 2010 and to cut the number of
deaths from tuberculosis and malaria by half by 2015.
Where countries have shown effective use of donor resources,
round six also presents an opportunity to build on programmes
which are having an impact in fighting and preventing the three
diseases, and to ensure continuity for those already on treat-
ment, according to the Global Fund.
As of end December 2005, 384,000 people have begun ARV treatment
through Global Fund supported programmes, and nearly triple the
number of ARV recipients funded by Global Fund resources by the
end of 2004, the Fund said.