Global fund approves $128.5 million in new grants for India

• $21 million for HIV
• $69.4 million for TB
• $38.1 million for malaria

The Board of Directors of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved new grants for India totaling up to $128.5 million. This takes the Global Fund's overall funding allocation for India up to $956.28 million.

Of the newly approved grants, $69.4 million will be provided for expanding care and treatment services for tuberculosis, particularly for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. India bears 21% of the global TB burden and has the highest estimated incidence of multi-drug resistant TB cases of any country.

The second major component of the newly approved funding is $21 million for HIV. This will focus on vulnerable communities at risk of HIV, including informal workers in key sectors like manufacturing, construction, textiles, tobacco and mining; men who have sex with men (MSM); hijra and transgender communities; and injecting drug users. This is the first time that the Global Fund has approved funding specifically for MSM interventions in India.

$38.1 million will go to malaria prevention and treatment efforts in the seven states in the northeast region - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. This includes efforts to achieve near universal coverage of long-lasting insecticide treated nets by 2015 in these areas.

"I am very pleased we are able to support India in its fight against the three diseases" said Professor Michel Kazatchkine, the Executive Director of the Global Fund. "I hope our collaboration continues and expands, helping India to reach the health-related Millennium Development Goals."

The Global Fund has also separately approved $18.6 million in a first-of-its-kind multi-country HIV grant in South Asia for an initiative targeting men who have sex with men and the transgendered community. This will be implemented by Population Services International in partnership with the Naz Foundation across South Asia.

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The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.

Since its creation in 2002, the Global Fund has become the dominant financier of programs to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, with approved funding of US$ 18.4 billion for more than 600 programs in 144 countries. To date, programs supported by the Global Fund have saved 4.9 million lives through providing AIDS treatment for 2.5 million people, antituberculosis treatment for 6 million people and the distribution of 104 million insecticide-treated bed nets for the prevention of malaria.

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