Additional Contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)

November 7, 2005

On November 8 (Tue), the Government of Japan contributed an additional 18.8 million dollars to the "Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM)". This brings Japan's total contribution of this year to the GFATM to 100 million dollars; its total accumulative contribution will be approximately 346 million dollars since the GFATM was established in 2002.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in June this year, announced that Japan would contribute additionally "half a billion dollars in the coming years" for the GFATM at a special symposium held to commemorate the fifth year since the conception of the GFATM at the Kyushu-Okinawa Summit.
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are three major infectious diseases which together kill six million persons every year, mainly in Africa, Asia and other developing countries. The number of people infected by HIV virus alone reached 40 million in the world and is rapidly increasing, particularly in the Asian region in recent years. Japan has played a leading role in the establishment of the GFATM by stressing the importance of tackling infectious diseases at the G8 Kyushu-Okinawa Summit held in July 2000.

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