China to receive $32m AIDS grant from Global Fund
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has signed a grant agreement worth US$32m over two years for an HIV/AIDS programme in China.
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has signed a grant agreement worth US$32m over two years for an HIV/AIDS programme in China.
The recipient of the grant, China CARES (China Comprehensive Aids RESponse), is an extensive community-based HIV treatment, care and prevention programme launched in 2003 by the Chinese Government in response to the worsening AIDS crisis in the country.
China is meeting additional requirements, including co-financing for the proposal, with the Chinese government contributing approximately $13.4m per year to the programme. Global Fund resources are to be additional to that contribution, and will total $98m over the full five years of the programme.
In June 2004, the board of the Global Fund approved a further HIV/AIDS grant proposal to China of $24m, currently in negotiation, which will target injecting drug users and commercial sex workers.
The Global Fund grant will facilitate the rapid expansion of the China CARES programme. Seven provinces (Anhui, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Shanxi, Shaanxi) targeted in the proposal are in urgent need of a comprehensive prevention and care response due to a high HIV case burden fuelled by paid plasma donations in the early and mid 1990s.