Global Fund [to 6 February 2016]
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/news/

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News
Grant to Fight TB in Southern Africa’s Mining Sector
PRETORIA, February 5, 2016 – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and a Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM) representing a group of 10 Southern African countries today signed a landmark grant to pioneer innovative models to reduce high rates of TB in the mining sector.

The Grant will support potentially-transformative interventions in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The World Bank Group serves as the Secretariat for the RCM while the Wits Health Consortium acts as the Principal Recipient of the Grant.

“Gold miners in southern Africa have some of the highest rates of TB infection in the world, we are committed to investing vigorously to reduce rates as much as possible,” said Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “To end TB as an epidemic, we have to be effective here.”…

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Global Fund Supports Health Investment in Botswana
03 February 2016
GABORONE, Botswana – Two new grants signed today between the Global Fund and Botswana mark a new phase of partnership, with a focus on preventing, treating and caring for people affected by HIV and tuberculosis.

The financial resources provided through the Global Fund come from many sources and partners, represented today at a signing event by the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, the European Union, Germany and France. The grants signed today total US$27 million.

“The overall goals of the grants are to achieve zero local malaria transmission or the elimination of malaria, to prevent new HIV infections, reduce morbidity and mortality as well as to enhance the psychosocial and economic impact associated with TB,” said Botswana’s Minister Of Health, Dorcas Makgato…

…Botswana faces high rates of HIV and TB. The HIV prevalence rate is 18.5 percent, one of the highest in the world. It also has one of the highest TB prevalence rates globally. The two diseases are highly interlinked – 60 percent of people with TB in Botswana also have HIV…