Secretary-General to chair AIDS conference in London on Monday – UN

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will chair a conference in London next week aimed at funding the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria through until the end of next year.

The conference is being held by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, a public-private partnership that has so far raised $3.7 billion, and was created three years ago at the initiative of the Secretary-General. The group provides funding to treat these diseases with life-saving treatment and prevention activities such as condom procurement and distribution.

On Monday Mr. Annan will meet with the Fund’s Executive Director, Richard Feachem. He will also meet with Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, (UNAIDS), and later with other officials attending the conference.

The following day, Mr. Annan will speak at the opening session of the conference, attend the pledging session that follows, and hold bilateral meetings throughout the day. He is expected to return to New York late Tuesday. Today he is in Europe.

Currently serving 127 countries, the Fund enables recipients to fight the three diseases by strengthening health systems and paying for drugs, diagnostics, mosquito nets and other commodities. The Fund’s programs now support 220,000 people on AIDS treatment and have provided treatment for 600,000 patients with TB and 1.1 million patients with malaria.