HORIZON INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS SITE

The number of people being treated for HIV/AIDS through resources provided by the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has risen to more than half a million, while programmes it has supported to distribute insecticide-treated bed nets in malaria-plagued countries are now reaching more than 11 million people, officials reported. 

With nearly 400 grants approved to combat the three diseases, programmes supported by the Global Fund are proving that where money is invested, treatment and prevention efforts are working, it said as the UN General Assembly’s special three-day High-Level Meeting on AIDS opened in New York.

 "New rounds of grants in 2006 and 2007 will provide the opportunity for countries to expand the considerable progress we are seeing against the three diseases,” said Carol Jacobs, Chair of the Global Fund Board. “Donors need to make long-term commitments of sufficient resources to enable developing countries to plan for the future with confidence that funding for their lifesaving activities will not trail off.”

Newly compiled performance results show that as of the end of last month, 544,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programmes, up from 384,000 six months ago. The new figures have increased more than fourfold over the Fund’s ARV figure of 130,000 people in December 2004, it added.

In addition, programmes providing DOTS (Directly Observed Short Course Treatment) have detected and treated more than 1.4 million cases of tuberculosis worldwide, compared to 1 million six months ago. The number of treated bed nets distributed jumped to 11.3 million from 7.7 million in December of last year and 1.35 million in December 2004, said the Fund, whose creation was proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001.

Last year the Global Fund, a public-private partnership, was responsible for an estimated 20 per cent of all international funding supporting the fight against HIV/AIDS and approximately two-thirds of global funding for programmes tackling TB and malaria.

UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news is solely responsible for this report of New York, May 31 2006.