New UK aid support to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria

1 Jul 2019 10:49 AM

UK aid has pledged further support to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to help save millions of lives around the world.

Since 2002, the Global Fund has helped save more than 27 million lives and reduced deaths from three killer infectious diseases - AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria - by more than a third in the countries which it invests in.

The UK’s new three-year funding pledge, announced recently, Saturday 29 June, will help:

• provide life-saving antiretroviral therapy to more than 3.3 million people with HIV;
• provide TB treatment and care for 2.3 million people;
• provide 120,000 people with treatment for multidrug-resistant TB;
• distribute 92 million mosquito nets to protect children and families from malaria; and
• strengthen health systems and promote global health security.

International Development Secretary, Rory Stewart recently said:

We’re deeply proud of our efforts with the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, but far too many people still die from these diseases.

We’re going to continue to invest in controlling and ultimately ending these diseases, and we will be making sure other countries contribute generously.

These diseases cross borders. Therefore, our support is something that helps the poorest people in the world, but is also something that keeps us safe here at home.

British expertise is at the heart of global efforts to tackle AIDS, TB and malaria.

The new pledge will average £467 million a year.

Recently (Friday, 28 June) Rory Stewart visited ViiV Healthcare in Hertfordshire – a UK business at the heart of tackling one of these diseases.

ViiV Healthcare has developed a new antiretroviral drug to treat HIV and is voluntarily licencing it. This means the Global Fund can negotiate lower prices and supply the drug in large volumes to developing countries, improving the lives of children and adults living with HIV.

ViiV Healthcare CEO, Deborah Waterhouse, recently said:

We strongly welcome the UK Government’s renewed pledge to support the Global Fund.

At GSK and ViiV we use our scientific expertise to help fight all three diseases covered by the Fund: HIV, TB and malaria. We recognise the value of partnership in achieving our ambitions to bring sustainable access to innovative treatment and prevention options for people affected by these diseases across the developing world.

We welcome the leadership from the UK Government today and encourage other Governments to follow this lead.

The UK’s investment is crucial as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria continue to blight the lives of people and communities around the world:

• in 2017 more than 2.5 million people died from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria;
• every day nearly 1,000 adolescent girls and young women across Africa become infected with HIV;
• TB is now the leading cause of death from an infectious disease; and
• a child still dies of malaria every two minutes.

Through the new pledge, the UK government will encourage stronger private sector engagement in the fight against malaria by doubling the value of up to £100 million of investment from private sector organisations.

The British government is determined to spend aid where it is most needed and deliver the best value for money.

As part of the new funding agreement, the UK will set out performance expectations around key priorities such as:

• improving health systems;
• preventing new infections;
• helping the poorest, most vulnerable and marginalised, including women and girls; and
• tackling antimicrobial resistance.

Executive Director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands, recently said:

The UK’s pledge is a strong message to the world that we must all step up the fight to end epidemics.

An increase of 16 percent is a tremendous show of leadership.

Confronting diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is an essential part of supporting a stable and prosperous world. The UK’s ongoing effort on global health will promote development and ensure we achieve Global Goal Three: good health and well-being for all people by 2030.

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