July 21, 2017
This week, the global health community shared major updates from the fights against AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. The Global Fund released a new video, below, and fact sheet highlighting the latest results from programs supported by the partnership around the world. For instance, Global Fund-supported programs put an additional 953,000 people on antiretroviral therapy (ARV) in the second half of 2016, an increase of 19 percent from a year before. That brings the total to 11 million people on ARV since the Global Fund was founded in 2002.
UNAIDS also highlights the declining rate of AIDS-related deaths, which has been slashed by nearly half since the peak in 2005. AIDS-related deaths have fallen from 1.9 million in 2005 to 1 million in 2016.
In addition to the successes in fighting HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund’s latest results demonstrate significant progress toward ending the epidemics of TB and malaria. The number of new TB cases detected and treated increased from 15.1 to 17.4 million, an increase of 15 percent from the end of 2015 to the end of 2016. The number of people treated for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) also increased by 40 percent, from 267,000 to 373,000.
Over the same period, the number of insecticide-treated nets distributed to protect families and small children from malaria increased by 21 percent from 659 million to 795 million. The number of malaria cases treated also increased by 15 percent, from 582 million to 668 million.
The world is currently at the tipping point in being able to defeat the epidemics of AIDS, TB and malaria for good. Now is the time to maintain the crucial funding needed to not only save lives, but protect and build on the progress made thus far. While there is still work to be done, the reports this week illustrate that these investments are working and providing significant returns to both implementing countries and donors.