• Victory over deadly diseases within grasp if UK invests in Fund to fight killer diseases

The UK must continue its lead role in the fight against deadly diseases, according to anti-poverty group, ONE.

MPs attending the All Party Parliamentary Groups on HIV & AIDS, Global Tuberculosis and Malaria next week [Tuesday 12 July, 2016] will show support for an ambitious pledge from the UK to the Global Fund –an international public-private partnership set up to tackle the scourge of fatal infections.

ONE’s UK Director (interim) Saira O’Mallie, said: “As the UK’s position in the world is redefined, the Government’s continued commitment to the Global Fund will offer reassurance to millions of the world’s poorest people – especially girls and women – that the UK remains steadfastly on their side in the battle to stop AIDS and HIV, TB and malaria.”

The Global Fund partnership was launched in 2002 and mobilises and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to provide affordable and effective treatment, supporting health programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need.

The UK has consistently been a leading donor, with investments yielding an impressive return: the Global Fund is on track to save 22 million lives by the end of 2016.

Victory Within Reach

Crucially, the funding of scientific advances means the fight against the three of the main killers in sub-Saharan Africa has reached a tipping point and defeating them is within grasp – as long momentum is not lost.

“The needs of women and girls are at the centre of the strategy to fight the diseases,

“In sub-Saharan Africa, young women are twice as likely as young men to be living with HIV, with 715 young women age 15-24 infected each day,” O’Mallie said.

MPs attending next week’s APPG will be urged to support a 20% increase on the UK’s previous commitment to the Global Fund – taking our investment to £1.2 billion – and help the partnership reach its US$13 billion replenishment target ahead of a meeting in Canada in September.

“Victory against these diseases is within our grasp. The UK’s pledge alone has the potential to save 1.1 million lives over the next four years,” added O’Mallie.

The event has been organised in partnership with the APPGs and a collation of NGOs, including ONE, Malaria No More, STOPAIDS, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Results.

Ends

Notes to editors:  The Global Fund delivers real impact on the ground, providing:

• Antiretroviral treatment for 8.6 million people living with HIV;

• Treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission for 3.3 million pregnant women living with HIV

• Insecticide-treated bed nets to protect 600 million families from malaria.

• Detection and treatment services for 15 million cases of TB.

 

*To help illustrate the long battle against HIV/AIDS, ONE has an exclusive interview with the creator of the iconic Tombstone and Tip of the Iceberg government public information films which were first aired in the UK 30 years ago, in 1986.

The campaign was the world’s first and biggest HIV/AIDS drive, and is viewed as the starting gun to raise awareness that threatened to ravage communities across five continents.

The deadly impact of AIDs and HIV reached its peak in 2004 and the disease is now widely viewed as being in retreat from a marker first laid down by the public information ads 30 years ago.