The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is to help Burkina Faso tackle HIV/AIDS by administering an African Development Fund (ADF) loan of US $1.5 million.
The UNDP acting resident representative, Anna Coulibaly, and the permanent secretary of Burkina Faso's National Council for AIDS Control, Joseph Andre Tiendrebeogo, signed the 36-month interest-free loan agreement.
Burkina Faso already has access to a two-year, $7 million Global AIDS Fund grant, which is also monitored by UNDP, to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and provide medical care and community training.
Although the country's 2004 sentinel survey, based on the voluntary testing of pregnant women at antenatal clinics, found that the current AIDS prevalence rate of 4.2 percent represented a sharp fall from the 6.5 percent indicated in the 2003 survey, health experts have warned that there were no grounds for complacency.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
Share this article
