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 3 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 to support 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 38 million lives.
But, in 2019, tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people, including 208,000 people with HIV, and it is estimated that 10 million people fell ill with the disease. Also that year, 229 million people contracted malaria, resulting in 409,000 deaths; nearly 690,000 people died of HIV-related illnesses; and 1.7 million people became newly infected with HIV.
Most at risk are women and girls, and key and vulnerable populations, such as men who have sex with men, drug users, sex workers and transgender people, and those who live in poverty. Barriers to human rights prevent millions of people from accessing prevention, treatment and care. Stigma, discrimination, gender inequality, violence and harmful social norms are also denying the most vulnerable people to be able to 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:
- Combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
- Reduce child mortality
- Improve the health and rights of women and children
- 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
- Over 20 million people are receiving life-saving antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS
- 9.8 million people were reached in 2019 with HIV prevention programs
- 717,967 HIV-positive pregnant women received antiretroviral drugs preventing HIV transmission to their infants in 2019
- 1.26 million medical circumcisions were perfomed to prevent HIV
Tuberculosis
- 5.76 million new cases of infectious tuberculosis were detected and treated in 2019
- 125,194 cases of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis were treated in 2019
Malaria
- 160 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets were distributed to protect families from transmission in 2019
- 124 million cases of malaria were treated in 2019
- 7.9 million households were sprayed with insecticide to protect people from malaria in 2019
