US Heath Secretary elected to Chair Global AIDS Fund Board

A senior United States health official has been elected to head the executive board of the global anti-AIDS fund championed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Tommy Thompson, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, has been elected Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Mr. Thompson, who will succeed Dr. Chrispus Kiyonga of Uganda, was elected by consensus during the Board's fourth meeting, currently under-way in Geneva.

Also today Dr. Suwit Wibulpolprasert, Deputy Permanent Secretary for Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health was elected as Vice-Chair. He will succeed Mr. Seiji Morimoto of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Japan.

Upon his election, Mr. Thompson said he looked forward to being actively engaged at Board meetings and that "the United States is committed to the fight against global AIDS and proud to partner with the Global Fund, with our allies, and with every man, woman and child on this planet as we seek to end this plague."

In other news, the Board announced that grants worth $866 million were awarded to projects in 60 countries. Sixty percent of the money awarded will go to projects to fight AIDS, with 70 percent of the projects to include a mother-to-child transmission component.

"The Global Fund's newest grants are quickly taking public/private partnerships to scale to make a broad global impact against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," said Richard Feachem, the Fund's Executive Director. "Not only is the Global Fund encouraging the most effective players to work together to get the job done on the front lines of the epidemics, it is also helping donors coordinate efforts, reduce waste and focus on achieving results."