UN-backed fund, American partner ramp up provision of key HIV/AIDS treatment

The United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and its United States partner announced today that the number of people they are providing with life-extending antiretroviral treatment (ARVs) has reached 1.2 million people – twice the volume of only a year ago.

In a joint statement released today to mark World AIDS Day, the Global Fund and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief said there has been a three-fold increase in the number of people in low- and middle-income countries – where access to such treatment has long been limited – receiving ARVs.

“Four years ago, almost nobody in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world was receiving treatment,” said Professor Richard Feachem, the Global Fund’s Executive Director. “That well over 1 million people with AIDS are now on treatment is a remarkable achievement.

“We must now build on this progress to reach the millions more who are still in urgent need,” he said.

Set up in 2002 on the initiative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the Global Fund is a public-private partnership that has committed $6.8 billion so far to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 136 countries.

On many of the projects it supports, the Fund works closely with international partners, including the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the UN World Health Organization (WHO).