New Global Fund Report: 4.9 Million Lives Saved
According to a new report released today by the Global Fund to Fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as of December 2009, the Global Fund has saved 4.9 million lives, and continues to save at least 3,600 lives each day. Programs supported by the Global Fund have given a new lease on life to millions of people living with HIV, saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of children and pregnant women by preventing the transmission of malaria, and brought down TB rates in countries where the disease was skyrocketing.
The report, The Global Fund 2010: Innovation and Impact, finds that Global Fund programs have:
- Provided antiretroviral therapy (ART) to 2.5 million people
- Distributed 1.8 billion male and female condoms
- Treated 790,000 women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV
- Treated 6 million people for active TB
- Provided 1.8 million combined TB/HIV services
- Distributed 104 million insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria
- Treated 108 million cases of malaria
Additionally, the programs supported through the Global Fund, the main multilateral funder of global health efforts, have accelerated progress towards global health targets for women and children as laid out in the U.N. Millennium Development Goals.
These are certainly laudable accomplishments. But we cannot allow ourselves to become complacent when it comes to treating these deadly diseases. Without expanded funding sufficient for the Global Fund to continue supporting current programs and meet increased demand — an estimated $20 billion over the next three years — these gains will stagnate or even erode.
A U.S. down payment in FY 2011 would be at least $1.75 billon, but the Obama administration has actually proposed cuts in funding below last year’s level — a decrease from $1.05 billion to just $1 billion.
We must call on the administration to fully contribute its $1.75 billion share to the Global Fund in FY 2011. The United States is known for helping those in need in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as this year’s earthquake in Haiti. It’s time to realize that AIDS, TB, and malaria are disasters in their own right: millions of people are dying from diseases that we know how to treat and prevent. It’s time for the United States to step up to the plate by making sure the Global Fund remains a success and a lifeline for millions of people with nowhere else to turn.
Read the full Global Fund report (pdf, 2906 k), The Global Fund 2010: Innovation and Impact.
Download key messages from the report (pdf, 126 k) that will resonate with members of Congress, editorial writers, and health reporters.
Download a background document (pdf, 133 k) to share with members of the media.