PHNOM PENH, July 19 (Xinhua) -- The Global Fund will give 98 million U.S. dollars in grant to Cambodia for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from 2018 to 2020, a senior Cambodian official said on Wednesday.
"The grant has not yet responded to our need, and the government will release a complementary package of budget to ensure the successful implementation of projects in fighting against epidemics," said Ieng Mouly, chairman of the National AIDS Authority and head of the Global Fund Country Coordinating Committee.
Meanwhile, he called on friendly countries and development partners to provide more assistance to Cambodia to battle with the epidemics.
The Southeast Asian country has seen a success in reducing HIV infection rate in nearly two decades.
HIV carrier rate among Cambodian adults, aged between 15 and 49 years, was 0.5 percent in 2016, down from 2.5 percent in 1998, said Mouly, estimating that some 74,000 Cambodians are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
For tuberculosis, Cambodia remains one of the highest tuberculosis burden countries in the world and the disease has killed about 9,300 people each year, according to the World Health Organization.
For malaria, the country reported 23,630 cases in 2016, a 54-percent decrease from 51,260 cases in the year before, according to government figures. The infectious disease killed one person only last year, remarkably down from 10 deaths in the year before.
