20 September 2013 - GENEVA - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has announced results that show significant gains in global efforts to tackle the three diseases.
Global Fund financing has now supported the detection and treatment of 11 million people with tuberculosis (TB), up from 9.7 million at the end of 2012. The number of people treated for multidrug-resistant TB through Global Fund programmes grew to 88 000 from 69000 over the same time period. Progress in India accounted for about 60 percent of this increase.
The results also show that 5.3 million people living with HIV are receiving antiretroviral therapy under programmes supported by the Global Fund, as of 1 July 2013, up from 4.2 million at the end of 2012. The results show a 21 percent increase in the number of women treated to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, in the first half of 2013.
Big strides have also been made in the fight against malaria, with 30 million insecticide-treated nets distributed in the first half of 2013 under programmes supported by the Global Fund, taking the total number of nets distributed to 340 million. The number of cases of malaria treated rose to 330 million, a 13 percent increase.
"These results show that we can have a transformative effect on these diseases, by working together," said Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund.
The Global Fund was created in 2002 to dramatically increase resources for the fight against the three pandemics. It will convene a once-every-three-years pledging conference, known as the Global Fund's Fourth Replenishment, in late 2013.