French.china.org.cn| Updated on 24-02-2022
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday urged governments and other stakeholders, including the private sector, to increase their financial contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Kenyatta said the Fund’s seventh replenishment cycle comes at a time when countries are battling COVID-19, hence the need for global solidarity in tackling the world’s health challenges.
“In the sixth replenishment cycle, my administration contributed US$6 million and we plan to increase our engagement for the seventh replenishment cycle to support the Global Fund,” he said. said from Nyeri County in central Kenya during the virtual launch of the Global Fund’s seventh replenishment round, to be hosted by the US government later this year.
In a statement issued by the Presidency, Mr. Kenyatta said that increasing contributions to the Global Fund and expanding the entity’s partnerships will help bring together the adequate resources needed to boost the global fight once morest HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
He commended the Global Fund for supporting Kenya’s efforts to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. He explained that since 2002, the Global Fund has awarded more than $1.4 billion in grants to Kenya’s health sector. With the help of the Global Fund, between 2013 and 2021, the country managed to reduce the annual number of AIDS-related deaths by 67%.
“These encouraging results have been achieved thanks to an 83% increase in the number of people infected with HIV receiving life-saving antiretroviral treatment; from 660,000 in 2013 to 1,200,000 in 2021” , said Kenyatta.
Kenya has achieved an 85% TB treatment success rate and a significant drop in annual TB prevalence, said Mr. Kenyatta, adding that Global Fund support has enabled the country to better respond to the malaria and to reduce its prevalence from 8.2% in 2015 to 5.6% in 2020.
