Canada and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created by the international community in 2002 to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world’s most devastating diseases: HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The Global Fund is a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases. The Global Fund supports large-scale prevention, treatment and care programs run by local experts in countries and communities most in need. The Global Fund takes a country-led approach, with national governments and local organizations leading program design and implementation.
Since 2002, the Global Fund has saved an estimated 27 million lives.
But, in 2017, tuberculosis killed 1.6 million people, including 300,000 people with HIV, and it is estimated that 10 million people fell ill with the disease. Also in 2017, there were 219 million cases of malaria resulting in 438,000 deaths and, in 2016, nearly 1 million people died of HIV-related illnesses.
Women and girls, key and vulnerable populations like men-who-have sex-with-men, drug users, sex workers, transgender people and those who live in poverty are most at risk. Human rights barriers prevent millions of people from accessing prevention, treatment and care. Stigma, discrimination, gender inequality, violence, harmful social norms are also denying the most vulnerable people access to the health care they need.
Canada's support for the Global Fund
Canada has supported the Global Fund since its inception and is its seventh largest donor. Canada has also been a consistently strong voice on the Global Fund Board.
Canada’s support of the Global Fund focuses on the following priorities:
- to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
- to reduce child mortality
- to improve the health and rights of women and children
- to promote human rights in the context of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
With the support of donors like Canada, the Global Fund has achieved tremendous results.
HIV/AIDS
- 17.5 million people are receiving life-saving anti-retroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS
- 9.4 million people reached in 2017 with HIV prevention programs
- 690,000 HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral drugs preventing HIV transmission to their infants in 2017
- 1.1 million medical circumcisions for HIV prevention
Tuberculosis
- 5 million new cases of infectious tuberculosis were detected and treated in 2017
- 102,000 cases of multidrug- resistant tuberculosis were treated in 2017
- 54 million lives saved due to effective diagnosis and treatment between 2000 and 2017
Malaria
- 197 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed to protect families from transmission in 2017
- 108 million cases of malaria were treated in 2017
- 12.5 million structures were sprayed with insecticides to protect people from malaria in 2017
