PROGRAMS SUPPORTED BY THE GLOBAL FUND CONTINUE TO SHOW IMPRESSIVE RESULTS

Author:

David Garmaise

Article Type:

Article Number: 6

Gains reflect increased uptake and better reporting

ABSTRACT The Global Fund continues to show impressive gains with respect to the number of people receiving key services as a result of programs supported by the Fund. Some of the gains reflect increased uptake of services, while others are the result of better reporting.

The Global Fund continues to show impressive gains with respect to the number of people receiving key HIV, TB and malaria services as a result of programs supported by the Fund. Some of the gains reflect increased uptake of services, while other gains are the result of better reporting.

On 20 July, the Global Fund released a fact sheet on its results for the period ending in December 2016. There is a six-month lag in reporting due to the time it takes to collect and verify the data.

In the six months ending December 2016, an additional 953,000 people were put on antiretroviral therapy (ARV) by programs supported by the Global Fund, an increase of 9.5%. Four countries account for about half of the six-month increase: Nigeria (22%), Tanzania (11%), Uganda (10%) and Myanmar (10%). In addition, the full national result from Kenya is now included in Global Fund reporting; previously, the Global Fund captured just 50% of the national result.

Over that same period, 826,000 new smear-positive TB cases were detected and treated, an increase of 5%. India and Indonesia accounted for 60% of the increase. Also in the second half of 2016, about 82 million mosquito nets were distributed for the prevention of malaria, an increase of 11.5%. The highest number of nets was distributed in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and India. Together, they accounted for 70% of the increase from June 2016.

Year-over-year results

The results for all of 2016 are shown in the table.

Table: Global Fund results for key services as of end 2016, showing comparison with 2015 results

The fact sheet includes an explanation of how the results were calculated and verified, as well as information on the criteria for reporting on national results. The fact sheet states that Namibia and Swaziland were excluded from the end-2016 ARV results as they did not meet the criteria for reporting national results. The fact sheet also states that the Global Fund reports 10% of the national number of people on ARV in South Africa because it provides 10% of the country’s ARV drugs.