New York: The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria has sought new proposals from countries seeking grants to help them fight the diseases.
"Already, millions of people have benefited from the programmes. The Global Fund is financing around the world and hundreds of thousands of people are alive today who otherwise might not have been," said Richard Feachem, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
"The launch of Round Six on Saturday allows us to maintain this vital momentum to win the battle against these three pandemics," he said.
The Global Fund, a public/private partnership founded four years ago to fight the three diseases, currently mobilises 20 per cent of international financing to combat HIV/ AIDS, and 65 per cent of all international funds invested in combating malaria and tuberculosis.
Around half of the Global Fund's financing is currently spent on medicines such as anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, mosquito nets for malarial prevention and other products, while the other half is used for strengthening health services.
The launch of this sixth round of allowing grant enables countries to seek funding for achieving global targets such as universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention by 2010 and to cut the number of deaths from tuberculosis and malaria by half by 2015.
Where countries have shown effective use of donor resources, round six also presents an opportunity to build on programmes which are having an impact in fighting and preventing the three diseases, and to ensure continuity for those already on treatment, according to the Global Fund.
As of end December 2005, 384,000 people have begun ARV treatment through Global Fund supported programmes, it said.
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