Numbers of Services Provided and People Reached Up Sharply Again in 2011

January 12, 2012

Article 5 from GFO Issue 173 - 10 January 2012

The Global Fund is continuing to experience solid growth in terms of services

provided and the numbers of people reached through programmes supported by the

Fund. Estimates of the full year numbers for 2011 were released on 1 December

2011.

The Global Fund is continuing to experience solid growth in terms of services

provided and the numbers of people reached through programmes supported by the

Fund, even as reduced estimates of available resources are forcing the Fund to

tighten its belt.

The Global Fund released estimates of the full year numbers for 2011 in time for

World AIDS Day on 1 December 2011. The number of people who received

antiretroviral treatment (ART) in 2011 was 3.3 million, an increase of 10%

compared to the 3.0 million people who received ART in 2010. The number of

mothers treated to prevent them from transmitting HIV to their babies rose to

1.3 million in 2011, from 1.0 million in 2010, up 30%. The number of HIV testing

and counselling sessions rose 27% to 190 million in 2011, compared to 150

million in 2010.

The number of tuberculosis cases detected and treated rose to 8.6 million in

2011 from 7.7 million in 2010, an increase of 12%.

The numbers for malaria were also up sharply:

70 million bed nets were distributed in 2011, an increase of 43% over 2010;

indoor residual spraying was carried out in 43 million homes in 2011, an

increase of more than one-third over 2010; and

the number of malaria cases treated with effective anti-malaria drugs also

jumped by more than a third, to 230 million in 2011 from 170 million in 2010.

The Global Fund supports around half of all patients receiving HIV treatment in

poor countries, and provides two-thirds of international funding to fight

tuberculosis and malaria. The Global Fund estimates that it will disburse

between $9.5 and $10 billion to programmes it supports in the period 2011-2013.

The Global Fund announced in November 2011 that because of a sharply

deteriorating economic situation, which is placing severe pressure on the

budgets of donor countries, the Fund will not be in a position to finance new

grants before the end of 2013. The Global Fund's Executive Director, Professor

Michel Kazatchkine, appealed to donors to increase funding, saying that while

the latest results showed that programmes supported by the Global Fund were

delivering remarkable results, far more could be achieved with additional

resources. " The poor and the vulnerable must not be made to pay the price for

the global financial crisis, " Kazatchkine said.

Note: As indicated above, these accomplishments are attributable to programmes

that the Global Fund has supported. This does not mean that the Global Fund

alone can take credit for this; many of these programmes have also been

supported by national governments and other donors. Information for this article

was taken from a Global Fund press release.

January 12, 2012