[procaare] Global Fund Gives Uganda $70 million for ARVs

[IRIN PlusNews <procaare@healthnet.org>]

UGANDA: Global fund gives $70 million for ARVs
- IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 10/5/2004
************

UGANDA: Global fund gives $70 million for ARVs

KAMPALA, 4 October (PLUSNEWS) - The Ugandan government's efforts to
scale up anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs to cater for about 120,000 people
living with HIV/AIDS, received a boost with the donation on Friday of US
$70.35 million dollars from the Global Fund on Aids, Tuberculosis and
Malaria.

The funds will also help the East African country offer assistance to
orphans and vulnerable children, according to government officials.

"The government of Uganda has signed an agreement with the Global Fund
for AIDS, TB and Malaria in which the fund will provide a grant of US
$70.35 to procure anti-retroviral drugs and provide assistance to the
orphans and vulnerable children," a statement by the finance ministry
said. The funds, it added, would among others be used on activities to
prevent the spread of the HIV virus, educate orphans, provide money to
people living with HIV/AIDS and monitor drug resistance to ARVs. Over 40
percent of the funds will be used to procure health and non-health
products from outside the country, according to the statement. About one
million people are infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, while
almost a similar number have died since the disease was first diagnosed
some 22 years ago.

Some 120,000 Ugandans are currently in need of ARVs, but only 25,000
have access to these lifesavers. Uganda has, in the past three years,
received some $290 million dollars from the fund that was created to
finance a dramatic turn-around in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis
and malaria.

The country has had considerable success in reducing HIV infection rates
from 30 percent in the early 1990s to below 6 percent currently. But it
is still confronted with a serious problems due to the epidemic,
including rising numbers of people needing care and support, including
orphans. [ENDS]


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Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
2004

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