Global Fund Raises $14.25 Billion To End AIDS, TB And Malaria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria raised $14.25 billion Wednesday at a donor conference led by US President Joe Biden, as decades of progress against the diseases are set back by...

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria raised $14.25 billion on Wednesday at a donor conference chaired by U.S. President Joe Biden, as COVID-19 rolled back decades of progress in fighting disease.

It was the largest amount pledged to a multilateral health organization -

But it fell short of the ambitious $18 billion target after the UK and Italy said their pledges would come later.

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Founded in 2002, the Global Fund brings together governments, multilateral agencies, civil society groups and the private sector.

“What happened today is really an unprecedented mobilization of resources for global health,” Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund, said, adding that he expected countries to fulfill their pledges in a timely manner.

“Thank you all for your progress, especially in a challenging global economic environment, and I ask you to continue to do so,

Biden urged. Let's end this fight together.

Among the countries, the United States pledged the largest amount, 6 billion dollars, followed by France with 1.6 billion euros, 1.3 billion euros by Germany, 1.08 billion dollars by Japan, 1.21 billion Canadian dollars by Canada, and 715 million euros by European Union.

The Gates Foundation pledged $912 million.

The $18 billion goal was based on getting back on track to end AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria by 2030, reclaiming the land lost during the COVID pandemic and saving 20 million lives over the next three years.

It was 30 percent more than that collected during the sixth and final replenishment of the organization's resources,

It was hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019, which raised $14 billion at the time.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, highlighted life expectancy in Japan at 84 years, while in Lesotho it was only 50.

“A lot of this difference is due to the fact that HIV,

Tuberculosis and malaria continue to kill millions in the poorest communities in the poorest countries.”

"Thanks in large part to the Global Fund, these diseases are killing half as many people now as they did 20 years ago. This is significant progress. However, these gains are at risk."

The fund estimates that it has reduced the number of deaths from AIDS and tuberculosis,

and malaria by 50 percent, saving more than 50 million lives.

- Signs of healing -

The Global Fund warned last year that the pandemic was having a devastating effect on its work, sending results back across the board for the first time in the fund's history.

But last week it said the massive resources it poured into the economic downturn had paid off and a "recovery is underway" against all three diseases.

The number of people dying from tuberculosis rose for the first time in a decade in 2020, when it caused an estimated 1.5 million deaths, making it the second-

The biggest killer of infectious diseases behind Covid.

But the Global Fund, which provides 76 percent of international funding to fight tuberculosis, said the programs showed signs of recovery last year.

Similarly, the number of people accessing HIV prevention services increased again after declining in 2020, reaching 12.5 million people worldwide,

organization said.

The fund provides nearly a third of international funding to fight HIV.

The disruption to health services during the pandemic has also taken a heavy toll in the battle against malaria, sending deaths up 12 percent in 2020, to an estimated 627,000.

But the Global Fund said that a rapid scale-

Those programs have allowed them to return to normal, with about 280 million suspected cases tested and 148 million treated last year.

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