NAN-F-26
Epidemics
Phnom Penh, July 19, 2017 (Xinhua/NAN) The Global Fund will give $98 million grant to support Cambodia for fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from 2018 to 2020, a Cambodian Senior Official said on Wednesday.
“The grant has not yet responded to our need, and the government will release a complementary package of budget to ensure the successful implementation of projects in fighting against epidemics.
“We have also called on friendly countries and development partners to provide more assistance to Cambodia to battle the epidemics,” Ieng Mouly, Chairman, National AIDS Authority and head of Global Fund Country Coordinating Committee, said.
The Southeast Asian country has recorded success in reducing HIV infection rate in nearly two decades.
Mouly said that HIV carrier rate among Cambodian adults, aged between 15 and 49 years reduced to 0.5 per cent in 2016 against 2.5 per cent in 1998.
He estimated that some 74,000 Cambodians are currently living with HIV/AIDS.
For tuberculosis, Cambodia remains one of the highest tuberculosis burden countries in the world and the disease has killed about 9,300 people each year, according to the World Health Organisation.
For malaria, the country reported 23,630 cases in 2016, a 54 per cent decrease from 51,260 cases in 2015, according to government figures.
The infectious disease killed one person only in 2016, remarkably down from 10 deaths in 2015. (Xinhua/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Abdullahi Yusuf