Global Fund Approves Two-Year, $34.2M HIV/AIDS Treatment Grant to Russia

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday approved a two-year, $34.2 million grant to Russia for HIV/AIDS treatment programs, Reuters AlertNet reports. The grant aims to increase the number of HIV-positive people receiving antiretroviral drugs in the country from an estimated 1,500 to 15,500 in two years. It also aims to provide treatment and support for HIV-positive prisoners, injection drug users, commercial sex workers, women seeking to become pregnant and men who have sex with men. The grant could be extended to $120.5 million over five years, in which case the program would aim to have 75,000 HIV-positive people in Russia on antiretrovirals by the end of the contract (Reuters AlertNet, 6/9). The grant's principal recipient, the nongovernmental Russian Health Care Foundation, also has received a World Bank loan for providing HIV/AIDS treatment to populations at high risk of contracting HIV. Russia already has received $22.3 million of a two-year, $31.6 million Global Fund grant for HIV/AIDS programs (Global Fund release, 6/8). UNAIDS estimates that about 860,000 HIV-positive people live in Russia (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 3/31).