NAIROBI, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Wednesday urged governments and other stakeholders including the private sector to raise their financial contributions to the Global Fund, a global financing organization dedicated to prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
Kenyatta said that the seventh replenishment cycle of the Fund comes at a time when countries are battling COVID-19, hence the need for global solidarity in the fight against the world's health challenges.
"In the sixth replenishment cycle, my administration contributed 6 million U.S. dollars and we plan to enhance our commitment for the seventh replenishment cycle in support of the Global Fund," he said from Nyeri County in central Kenya during the virtual launch of the Global Fund's seventh replenishment cycle which will be hosted by the U.S. Government later this year.
In a statement released by the presidency, Kenyatta said increasing contributions to the Global Fund and broadening the entity's partnerships will assist in raising adequate resources needed to boost the global fight against HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.
The president commended the Global Fund for supporting Kenya's efforts to combat HIV, TB and malaria, saying that since 2002, the Global Fund had disbursed more than 1.4 billion dollars in grants to Kenya's health sector and Kenya had managed to lower her annual AIDS-related deaths by 67 percent between 2013 and last year with the help of the Global Fund.
"This encouraging performance reflects an increase of 83 percent in the number of people living with HIV that are on life-saving antiretroviral treatment from 0.66 million people in 2013 to 1.2 million people in 2021," Kenyatta said.
Kenya had achieved a TB treatment success rate of 85 percent and a significant decline in the annual TB prevalence, said Kenyatta, adding that the Global Fund's assistance had helped the country to lower her malaria burden from a prevalence of 8.2 percent in 2015 to 5.6 percent in 2020. ■
