Government has signed a grant of $300 million with the Global Fund to help mitigate the effects of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV and AIDS.
Over the past 12 years Global fund has given Ghana over$700 million to fight these diseases.
The money went into supply of essential drugs and services leading to a 60 percent decline in malaria deaths with 85% decline tuberculosis cases.
President John Mahama who witnessed the signing ceremony at the Flagstaff House said that government will in the coming months work with the Global Fund at improving drug supplies to the country’s medical stores and assured that he will ensure the money is put to good use.
“The successes are clear, it’s obvious that this signing in ceremony we are having from now till the year 2017 is going to increase the successes that we have chalked in these areas. Ghana is a lower middle income country progressing into middle income and we are happy with the transition agreement we have with the Global fund that we begin to take up some of the slack ourselves and be able to fund some of these programmes until we are fully fledged middle income country and we can stand on our feet.”
“…We will continue to improve the relations and continue to deal with all these resources in all the efficient manner to ensure that our people get the full benefit of the support that we are receiving,” he added.
For his part, Dr Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund assured that they would continue to work with government to achieve their goals.
He observed that Ghana has over the years recorded 60 per cent reduction in the incidence of malaria adding that they will continue to support the nation to achieve its health targets.
On HIV and AIDS, the Executive Director said Ghana had also excelled in the distribution of the Anti-Retroviral drugs to many patients thereby creating comfortable conditions in the country.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana