Global Fund supports AIDS treatment for 1.75 million people

These are the results reported in a recently released Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis report. In addition, Global Fund-supported tuberculosis programs have so far put more than 3.9 million people on effective TB drugs treatment. Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among HIV-infected people; the World Health Organization estimates that TB accounts for up to a third of AIDS deaths worldwide.

The Global Fund also reported progress in the fight against malaria, with a cumulative total of 59 million insecticide-treated bed nets delivered to families at risk of contracting the disease through its funded programmes. This represents a 98 percent increase over the quantity of 30 million nets which had been delivered by mid 2007.

The results figures were released to coincide with a UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS at the UN Headquarters in New York which opens Tuesday. During the meeting, Member States and representatives of civil society will review progress towards targets agreed by the Assembly in its 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and its 2006 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

Last week, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and Unicef announced that nearly three million people were receiving ARV treatment for AIDS worldwide by the end of 2007. The new figures announced by the Global Fund today show that around 60 per cent of all people receiving ARV treatment worldwide do so through Global Fund-supported programmes.

The other major financer of ARV treatment programs, the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) will announce its own figures separately at a later date. PEPFAR and the Global Fund jointly support many AIDS treatment programs.

The Global Fund provides around 20 percent of international resources to fight AIDS, as well as two-thirds of international funding to fight tuberculosis and three quarters of international funding to fight malaria.

“These new results are a testament to the hard work of our partners and the millions of health workers on the ground who work tirelessly day in day out to make sure that Global Fund resources are put to best use,” said Dr Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “We are halfway to 2015, which is the year the United Nations has set to reach the Millennium Development Goals. So far, we are far behind the targets in reducing the mortality from AIDS, TB and malaria, but the results coming in over the past years give hope that we can still catch up and reach the targets if we continue to scale up investments.”

Additional results showed that 46 million people have been reached with HIV counseling and testing; 2.8 million AIDS orphans have been provided with basic care and support; 60 million malaria drug treatments have been delivered; 65 million people have been reached with community outreach services for one or several of the three diseases; and 7.6 million health or community workers have been trained to deliver services since the Global Fund started financing grants in 2003.

The results reported today are the aggregated results from individual programs supported by the Global Fund in 136 countries. Measuring performance is at the core of the Global Fund's performance-based financing system which only disburses money based on targets reached. The quality of the results is assured through the work of the Global Fund's verifying agency in each country and independent data and systems reviews.

“These figures are the living proof that Global Fund resources are a major driving force in the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria,“ said Rajat Gupta, the Chair of the Global Fund Board. “Our donors, our technical partners and the people implementing our programs in the countries are all an integral part of the lifesaving mission of the Global Fund. We thank each and every one of them.”

Wednesday, the Global Fund will launch a major advocacy project to highlight the benefits of AIDS treatment and prevention programs. The project, Access to Life, is a collaboration between the renowned photo agency Magnum and the Global Fund. Through photography, video and text, it portrays 34 people from nine countries as they start ARV treatment and follows them through the first four months of the treatment. The Access to Life exhibition will open at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. before touring several cities around the world.

Jon Liden - Head, Communications
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