Health

Nigeria and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria signed five grant agreements today worth a total of US $335 million to support programs that will help significantly expand prevention and treatment of HIV and tuberculosis in Africa’s most populous country.

Nobel peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has accepted a new role with the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to advance efforts to eliminate stigma and discrimination against those affected by the epidemic.

A reduction of more than 50 per cent in the rate of new HIV infections has been achieved across 25 low- and middle-income countries – more than half in Africa, the region most affected by HIV – according to a new United Nations report, which shows that unprecedented acceleration in the AIDS response is producing results.

Marking World Toilet Day today, the United Nations independent expert on the right to clean water for drinking and personal hygiene said the international community’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to sharply reduce world poverty by 2015 are set to fail the poor in terms of sanitation.

Countries gripped by a hunger crisis in West Africa’s Sahel region urgently need additional help to combat a series of intestinal-worm and other Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) that have spread in the wake of regional flooding, the United Nations health agency said today.

African leaders meeting on the sidelines of the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly called today for innovative solutions to accelerate the response to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and to advance health for people on the continent.

The Coca-Cola Company and the Global Fund today announced they will expand a project leveraging the Company’s expansive global distribution system and core business expertise to help government and non-governmental organizations deliver critical medicines to remote parts of the world, beginning in rural Africa.

The United Nations today announced the addition of Bollywood icon and former Miss World winner Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to its roster of International Goodwill Ambassadors, focussed on helping the Organization’s efforts in combating the spread of HIV infections in children.

Although the pace of childhood death has declined sharply in recent decades – with an estimated 6.9 million children dying before their fifth birthday in 2011, compared to around 12 million in 1990 – greater gains must be made to meet international goals to save infants and young children, according to a United Nations report released today. 

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria and Nigeria signed two grant agreements today worth a total of US$225 million to support programs that will prevent and treat malaria.