Haiti to receive $66.9 million from global fund to fight AIDS - UN agency

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today announced that Haiti is to receive $66.9 million over the next five years for anti-retroviral therapy for more than 1,200 people living with AIDS.

The monies will be disbursed from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and will include an awareness and prevention campaign and the distribution of some 15 million condoms.

Haiti has the worst HIV/AIDS infection rates in the Western Hemisphere, according to UNDP. More than 30,000 Haitians died of AIDS and related ailments last year and approximately six percent of Haiti's 15 to 49-year-old population are currently infected.

"The programme will help overcome many barriers to treatments, widen HIV testing, promote prevention and ultimately help reverse social conditions that facilitate the spread of HIV/AIDS," said Mildred Aristide, Haiti's First Lady and chairperson of the country's coordinating mechanism for the Fund.

The Global Fund, a partnership among government, civil society, the private sector and international agencies, was established in 2001 to mobilize public and private resources against three of the world's most lethal diseases in support of the UN Millennium Development Goals.