Global Fund grants Malawi US$28million to purchase ART’s

Malawi’s National Aids Commission (NAC), a body assigned to respond the HIV/Aids epidemic in the country, on Thursday said that it had received a grant of US$28 million from the Global Fund for Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/Aids to procure anti-retrovirus therapy (ART\’s) drugs for the next six years.

NAC Executive Director Bizwick Mwale said in Lilongwe that the money would go a long way in scaling up activities of ART treatment to rural health facilities.

"Currently the country has very few rural health facilities which give ART to HIV affected people, therefore the grant would ease the walking distance to reach the treatment," he said.

Malawi has nearly one million people who are HIV-positive from a population of 12 million, of which 180,000 are on ART treatment.

Mwale said his commission would make sure that those remaining and are eligible to start the treatment are put on ART’s.