September 14, 2022

Help in the fight against epidemics

Aids, tuberculosis and malaria are among the most widespread infectious diseases in the world:

38 million people are infected with HIV. A quarter of those infected do not receive any medication, which is why more than half a million people still die from it every year.
In the malaria regions, around 200 million people fall ill every year, of which over half a million die each year. Around a third of these are small children.
With a mortality rate of 1.5 million per year, tuberculosis is the disease with the highest number of deaths per year.

Ending these epidemics is therefore one of the global sustainability goals that the UN wants to achieve by 2030. An important instrument for achieving this goal is theGlobal Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM). It was founded in June 2001 at a UN Special General Assembly on AIDS. Its aim is to finance national measures against these three diseases. It thus strengthens the responsibility of governments and promotes the participation of civil society and the private sector.

After good progress had already been made in the past in the fight against these diseases, the corona epidemic has led to significant setbacks. For example, the number of deaths from tuberculosis has risen again for the first time in 15 years, and efforts to eliminate HIV and AIDS have also been set back by years. In order to make up for these setbacks, far greater financial support is needed than in previous years.

German Development Minister Svenja Schulze therefore announced: "Germany will contribute a total of 1.3 billion euros to the global fund against the three diseases between 2023 and 2025, which is 30% more than last time." In total, at least 18 billion dollars (18.1 billion euros) will be mobilized for the period from 2023 to 2025 so that the fund's existing programmes can be continued.

We of course very much welcome this decision and hope to be able to play our part in the fight.

Further information can be found at: