Achieving targets: Pakistan to get $225 million to meet MGDs

GF officials said it was deplorable that only eight per cent of AIDS patients in the country were being treated.

LAHORE:

The Global Fund has announced that it will provide Pakistan $255 million to control malaria, HIV and tuberculosis. The funds will be spent to control and eradicate these diseases in order to bring the country closer to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. GF officials announced this at a press conference on Tuesday.

They said Pakistan’s health indicators regarding these diseases had shown improvement but there was much to be done. They said Pakistan was working on an elaborated programme to eradicate TB. They said it was deplorable that only eight per cent of AIDS patients in the country were being treated. They said drug addicts who injected drugs directly into their drug stream, had the high ration of AIDS. TB Control Programme National Manager Dr Ijaz Qadeer said Pakistan planned to achieve the target of zero deaths due to TB by 2020.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2014.