The government and the Global Fund have signed a grant agreement worth more than $55 million to implement anti-AIDS and tuberculosis programmes in Cambodia from 2018 to 2020.
A Finance Ministry notice said representatives of the government and the Global Fund last week signed the agreement for approximately $55.4 million.
The grant will pay for the implementation of programmes to fight the diseases, of which about $41 million will go toward work to stop AIDS, while approximately $13 million will be spent on preventing tuberculosis.
“The Global Fund aims to provide full support to the Cambodian Government on the fight against HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis within the framework of the country and to strengthen the health system in Cambodia. The Ministry of Health will be responsible for leading the programmes completely,” the Finance Ministry notice said.
The Global Fund will begin to provide the cash in early January 2018, while a senior representative of the organisation will visit Cambodia soon to celebrate the official launch of the programmes.
Ly Peng Sun, director of the Health Ministry’s National Centre for HIV, said yesterday that the Global Fund had always supported the country’s work to tackle HIV/AIDS.
He added the $41 million funding will focus on buying medicines and monitoring the health of people living with HIV, as well as identifying new patients.
“Although there is still a shortage of funding overall, the money is a large sum to help us respond to HIV/AIDS,” he said.
Mr Peng Sun said there are about 70,000 people currently living with HIV/AIDS in the country, of which about 60,000 have received treatment and more than 10,000 have not.
A United Nations report in July said Cambodia is ahead of every country in Asia and the Pacific for its treatment of HIV.
According to the Global Tuberculosis Report 2017, published by the World Health Organisation, Cambodia had been successful in activities to fight tuberculosis.
From 2000 to 2016, the rate of illness and death from tuberculosis in the country fell 55 percent, to 20 cases for every one million people, it said.
