28 September 2009 - Geneva - UNITAID launched a global ‘Thank you’ campaign today to highlight achievements in global health thanks to the steady support of its contributors.
Launched by Brazil, Chile France, Norway and the United Kingdom in 2006, UNITAID is an international facility that uses innovative, long-term financing to expand access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries.
Funded by a small levy on airline tickets applied in a dozen countries and through governments’ multi-year contributions, UNITAID aims to thank air travellers and tax payers in the 29 countries that support it today, and to encourage more countries to back the initiative.
UNITAID is a major funder of the Stop TB Partnership, with over 200 million dollars invested in testing and treating tuberculosis in 72 countries.
Through UNITAID's partnership with the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative. seven new AIDS medicines for children have been made available and their price has been reduced by almost two thirds.
UNITAID, partnering with UNICEF and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has so far distributed eight million of the most effective malaria treatments - artemisinin-based combination therapy - and is providing 20 million bed nets to endemic countries.