EU gives R3.8bn to fight disease
2007-06-01 10:15
Special Report
The South African government has announced a joint venture to reduce the cost of anti-retroviral drugs with a Swiss company.
Brussels - The European Commission plans to give €400m (R3.8bn) to an international fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria over four years, it said on Thursday.
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, launched by the Group of Eight industrialised nations (G8), is financed largely by the US and European governments.
The EU's executive announced a €100m grant, and
will ask EU governments and the European Parliament for the
green light to give another €300m for 2008-2010, it
said in a statement.
The five-year-old fund said earlier this month that as of May 1 between one million and 1.1 million people had received Aids drugs through its efforts, up from 544 000 a year ago.
More than 2.8 million people have been treated for TB and
around 30 million families received bed nets under Global Fund
efforts since it started its work in 2002, the group said.
More than 25 million people have died of Aids since the
disease, which devastates the body's immune system, was first
recognised about a quarter of a century ago.
Malaria kills about one million people annually, mostly
young children. Tuberculosis kills an estimated 1.6 million
people a year.
The European Commission said it had provided the fund with
€522m over the past five years.
The announcement of further EU cash comes as rights groups
accuse rich nations of having failed to keep promises of
financial aid to Africa, ahead of next week's G8 summit.
- Reuters