The Global Fund has announced some significant increases in the numbers of people receiving services through programmes supported by the Fund.

In a news release issued on 20 September, the Global Fund said that as of the end of June 2013, 5.3 million people are receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) through these programmes. This compares to 4.2 million at the end of 2012, an increase of 1.1 million, or 26%.

However, 81% of the 1.1 million increase (890,000) comes from two countries ­– Nigeria and Malawi – whose numbers were not previously included in the aggregated results because the countries did not meet the Fund’s stringent criteria for such data. According to information available on the Global Fund website, Nigeria now has 490,000 people enrolled on ART and Malawi has another 400,000. Presumably, most of these people were already on ART at the end of 2012, but were not counted at that time.

In its news release, the Global Fund said that as of the end of June 2013, the number of women treated to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV was 2.1 million, up from 1.7 million at the end of 2012, an increase of 24%.

The Global Fund said that four countries accounted for two-thirds of the increase in the number of women treated to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV: Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The Fund said that efforts to prevent transmission accelerated sharply over the last year in these countries.

Between the end of December 2012 and June 2013:

• the number of long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets rose to 340 million from 310 million, an increase of 10%; and
• the number of cases of malaria treated increased to 330 million compared to 292 million, an increase of 13%.

“These results show that we can have a transformative effect on these diseases, by working together,” said Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund.

It is important to note that these results were attained by programmes supported by the Global Fund. These programmes also receive funding from other sources.