GLOBAL FUND ANNOUNCES BIG INCREASES IN PEOPLE REACHED

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Download PDF The Global Fund announced this month that a cumulative total of 1.75 million people living with HIV have been reached with antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through AIDS programs it supports, a 59 per cent increase over the totals as of a year ago. UN agencies earlier announced that nearly three million people were receiving ARV treatment by the end…

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ABSTRACT The Global Fund has announced that 1.75 million people living with HIV have been reached with ARV treatment through AIDS programs it supports, a 59 per cent increase over the totals as of a year ago. In addition, 3.9 million people have been put on TB drugs treatment, and 59 million insecticide-treated bed nets have been distributed.

The Global Fund announced this month that a cumulative total of 1.75 million people living with HIV have been reached with antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through AIDS programs it supports, a 59 per cent increase over the totals as of a year ago.

UN agencies earlier announced that nearly three million people were receiving ARV treatment by the end of 2007. Thus, almost 60 per cent of all people receiving ARV treatment worldwide do so through Global Fund-supported programs.

In addition, the Fund announced that TB programs it supports have so far put more than 3.9 million people on effective TB drugs treatment. (TB accounts for up to a third of AIDS deaths worldwide.)

And Fund-supported malaria programs have distributed 59 million insecticide-treated bed nets, a 98 percent increase over the total as of a year ago.

The Fund has not released a country-by-country breakdown of these totals.

[Editor’s note: The Fund was not the only source of funding for the people that its grants are helping. In some cases, these specific people benefited not only from funding coming from the Fund, but also from funding coming from PEPFAR, and/or from their own government, and/or from their employer, and/or from their own personal finances.]

The Fund provides around 20 percent of international resources to fight AIDS, as well as two-thirds of international funding to fight TB 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 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.”

Results at a glance:

The Fund said that in addition, 46 million people have been reached with HIV counselling 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.

“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.”