Global Fund grant to boost Zim health system

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s ailing public health system will receive a 180 million US dollar boost to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from the Global Fund, state media reported yesterday.

The government and the Global Fund signed for the release of the money in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this month.’The first phase of the grant is expected to start in January next year and run until December,’ Rangarirai Chiteure, Global Fund country coordinating mechanism manager told the state-run Herald.Zimbabwe has been receiving money from the Global Fund since 2002 and this latest grant is the fourth.In September, Zimbabwe reported new progress in its fight against AIDS, saying its HIV infection rate had declined to 13,7 per cent of youths and adults, from an estimated 14,1 per cent last year.However, Health Minister Henry Madzorera said the rate was still too high and called for concerted efforts to push the rate down into single digits.Zimbabwe is one of the few countries in the world to have recorded a sharp decline in its HIV prevalence rate, down from a high of 33 per cent in 1999.The drop is attributed to government and donor-backed prevention campaigns, but also to the nation’s economic collapse, which has made it more difficult for people to maintain multiple sexual partners.The country is struggling to care for people with AIDS because of severe shortages of antiretroviral drugs. About 60 000 people receive the drugs, only 20 per cent of those who need them. – Nampa-AFP