Conference collects billions: States step up fight against infectious diseases

AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria kill millions of people around the world every year.

Conference collects billions: States step up fight against infectious diseases

AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria kill millions of people around the world every year. US President Biden is organizing a donor conference to combat the diseases. Several billion euros come together - also from Germany.

On the fringes of the UN General Assembly, several large industrialized countries increased their financial aid for the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. At a donor conference on the fringes of the UN General Assembly in New York, Germany, the USA, Canada, Japan, France and the EU, among others, made extensive financial commitments to replenish a global fund to combat the three infectious diseases.

The USA promised a total of six billion dollars for the next three years. France promised around 1.6 billion euros. Germany had previously announced that it would contribute 1.3 billion euros. Japan and Canada also made similarly large pledges. 715 million euros are to come from the EU. US President Joe Biden, who hosted the conference this year, said other states and the private sector are also contributing money.

The commitments totaled around 14 billion US dollars (around 14 billion euros). The goal is to defeat AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis once and for all. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the fund had already saved more than 44 million lives and made remarkable progress in the fight against infectious diseases. But the international community must not let up.

The Global Fund was founded in 2002 on the initiative of the group of eight industrialized countries and the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Donor conferences are held every three years to raise funds for the fund - in 2019 this took place in France and in 2016 in Canada. The fund finances measures against the three diseases around the world. As a result of the corona pandemic, there have recently been complaints about regression in the fight against other diseases.