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Kenya secures 340 mln USD health funding

Xinhua, June 8, 2016 Adjust font size:

Kenya's health ministry has secured 340 million U.S. dollars from Geneva-based the Global Fund to boost the war against HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis in the 2016/2017 financial year, an official said on Wednesday.

Nicholas Muraguri, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, said Kenya secured the funding from the international financing agency after a competitive bidding process.

"Kenya successfully applied for funding support from the Global Fund to support HIV, TB and Malaria war in January this year. This funding is running for two years," said Muraguri.

He was speaking in Nairobi during a briefing for counties' health executives on the disbursement of the new funds to strengthen response to the three infectious diseases that are the leading cause of deaths in Kenya.

Since 2002, Kenya has secured 2 billion dollars from the Global Fund to support home grown interventions aimed at reducing the burden of AIDs, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

Muraguri said the bulk of these funds had been channeled towards community-led prevention and treatment programs.

"The new funds will support enrollment of 600,000 additional adult and children infected with HIV on anti-retrovirals. They will also be used to support elimination of mother to child infection alongside prevention of HIV transmission among youth," Muraguri told reporters.

He revealed the new funds will also support enrollment of 3,000 multi-drug resistant tuberculosis patients into care and support programs.

"We will use the new funds to support provision of 6.8 million long lasting insecticide nets in Malaria endemic zones alongside provision of free Artemisinin Combination Therapy and Malaria diagnosis," said Muraguri.

Kenya also aims to utilize money from the Global Fund to upgrade community health systems and enhance their capacity to respond to both infectious and no- communicable diseases.

Muraguri said the money will support the upgrading of distribution infrastructure for health commodities at the grassroots level.

"We have created a transparent system to ensure money from the Global Fund is utilized prudently as we retool our strategies of combating HIV, TB and Malaria," Muraguri said, adding that Kenya allocates 30 million dollars annually for the fight against the three diseases. Endit