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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has approved US$2.4 billion in its ninth round of grants, bringing the total amount of approved funding since its inception in 2001 to $18.4 billion.
"These grants enable countries around the world to address some of the main problems they are struggling with every day," Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian Health Minister and Chair of the Global Fund Board, said in a press release.
The two-year commitment - the second largest ever - was approved by the board of directors during a recent meeting in Addis Ababa, when it also decided to launch the tenth round of grants in May 2010.
There had been fears that as a result of a funding shortfall, the board would decide to cancel its 2010 call for funding proposals, curtailing the fight against the AIDS pandemic.
Despite the decision to go ahead with a call for proposals in 2010, Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund, noted that the demand for funding was 'enormous', and there was a need for more investment to continue the worldwide momentum of HIV prevention, treatment and care.
"We may not be able to continue approving such amounts of financing and see continued progress in health in the coming years unless donor countries scale up their funding even further than what they have done so far," he said.
An estimated 2.3 million people around the world are on life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs paid for by the Global Fund, which has also provided anti-tuberculosis treatment to 5.4 million people.
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