United Nations Radio

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria says it has approved 94 new grants worth US$2.75 billion over two years.

It is the eighth time the Global Fund has approved new proposals to support programmes fighting the three diseases.

The decision was made in New Delhi over the weekend, where the Global Fund held its board meeting.

Chair of the Global Fund Board Rajat Gupta says "this is the highest amount of new financing approved by the Global Fund ever."

He says "these new resources will significantly help the world in achieving global targets such as universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention, and cutting the number of deaths from tuberculosis and malaria by half by 2015.

The majority of the resources go to malaria programmes, accounting for 51 per cent. Proposals for AIDS account for 38 per cent and tuberculosis 11 per cent of the funding.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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