NAIROBI, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Global Fund to Fight HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis on Friday released 380 million U.S. dollars to Kenya's ministry of health and partners to support the war against the three infectious diseases that are leading cause of deaths in the East African Nation.
Henry Rotich, Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury, lauded the new funding that covers a three year period terming it a giant step towards elimination of HIV/Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis in Kenya.
"With this new grant, we will continue to support prevention, diagnosis and treatment interventions for HIV, TB and Malaria," said Rotich, adding that the Global Fund has approved 19 grants to Kenya worth 1 billion dollars since its inception in 2002.
Kenya's ministry of health and partners in the civil society will utilize the new grant to implement a host of projects geared towards reducing deaths linked to HIV, Malaria and TB.
Rotich said the government has put in place solid mechanisms to facilitate optimal use of the new funding to fight the infectious diseases that have put enormous strain on Kenya's public health care infrastructure.
"The new funding will support capacity development, training and deployment of commodities to strengthen the fight against HIV, Malaria and TB. We have strong measures in place to enhance absorption of the funds," said Rotich.
The East African nation has strengthened its partnership with multilateral lenders in order to bridge a financing shortfall that has undermined the fight against HIV, Malaria and TB.
Cleopa Mailu, Cabinet Secretary for Health, said that sustainable financing is key to revitalize the war against a high burden of infectious diseases in Kenya.
"Our priority now is to achieve sustainable financing in order to achieve better health outcomes in the country," said Mailu, adding that Kenya has reformed the policy environment in order to attract external funding to the health sector.
The new grant from the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Malaria and TB seeks to reach 1.3 million Kenyans living with HIV/Aids with antiretroviral therapy (ART) by 2021 while boosting interventions aimed at discovering missing cases of TB.
Linden Morrison, the Head of Global Fund's High Impact Africa 11 Department, said that Kenya could eliminate HIV, Malaria and TB in the near future subject to policy reforms, better governance, partnerships and innovative financing.
"We have a historic opportunity to end the three diseases as public health threats," Morrison remarked.
He added that Kenya has inspired multilateral lenders through support for domestic resource mobilization to boost the war against infectious and lifestyle diseases.
