The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will offer the Ministry of Health and Population a grant worth $11.2 million to support patients suffering from human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and tuberculosis as well as to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19.
Under the deal, $5.2 million will be allocated for boosting Egypt’s efforts to improve access to HIV and tuberculosis treatment services, while the remaining $5.9 million will be used for mitigating the negative impacts of Covid-19 on the country’s healthcare system.
The grant, which is being financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, will support the country’s National AIDS Programme and National Tuberculosis Control Programme for three years – from April 2022 to March 2025.
The grant will be disbursed in co-operation with the ministry’s HIV and tuberculosis prevention programmes as well as civil society organisations in eight governorates.
This strategy focuses on intensifying efforts to reach the largest number of infected people, provide care to those in urgent need, and ensure therapeutic adherence and the efficiency of health services.
Egypt’s National AIDS Programme was launched 35 years ago to combat HIV.
The Health Ministry has recently announced that Egypt’s rate of HIV infection was significantly decreasing, with a prevalence rate of less than one per cent.
The ministry has said Egypt is committed to the global strategy of combatting AIDS as a part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aims to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
The National Tuberculosis Control Programme provides early detection services for tuberculosis.
In March 2022, the ministry said that tuberculosis rate in Egypt fell from 15,000 cases per 100,000 people in 2015 to only 11 cases in 2021.
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