COTE D'IVOIRE: Global Fund offers $18 m to fight HIV/AIDS

ABIDJAN, 1 October 2003 (PlusNews) - The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis is to provide US $18 million to NGOs and other groups in Cote d'Ivoire for activities in the field of HIV/AIDS, under an agreement between the fund and the Ivorian government health ministry.

The money will be disbursed over a two-year period, according to Anidie Laure, information officer at the Ministry of Health. Depending on the Global Fund's assessment of activities carried out in the first two years, another $37 million is to be disbursed over the next three years, according to the agreement, signed on Friday.

"Everyone is on the lookout to make sure the money reaches the targeted beneficiaries," said Christine Oussou, chairperson of the Ivorian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS.

She said access to antiretroviral drugs was a key issue for the network.

The money is to be used to involve communities in HIV-prevention, increase populations' access to testing, provide medical care and antiretroviral drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS and help reduce mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Cote d'Ivoire is the country with the highest HIV-prevalence rate in West Africa - between 10 and 14 percent of the entire population varying from region to region, according to the UN Aids programme (UNAIDS).

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