Georgian Government to finance AIDs, Tuberculosis and Malaria treatment
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, October 1
The Georgian government plans to gradually replace the finances of the Global Foundation sponsorship for AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria treatments soon.
The Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia, Davit Sergeenko, and the Executive Director at the Global Foundation Mark Daibl, signed the memorandum concerning the issue.
The signing ceremony took place at the Global Funding forum, which aims to impose the funding of dangerous diseases on a national level. The International Conference will continue for three days and will host 300 delegates from 30 countries.
According to Sergeenko, the memorandum represents a banking agreement according to which the Georgian government will gradually provide treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria for the next three years.
“This memorandum is a new banking agreement which defines the funding of next two years. The sponsorship schedule is dynamic. The share of the state finance increases and the Global Foundation’s part decreases. After three years, the state will fully provide management of the three programs. This sum is more than 50 million GEL and in percentages, it starts from 5% to 75% and in three years' time it will be 100%,” stated Sergeenko.
According to the Heath Ministry, the Global Foundation has been financing the three diseases’ treatment since 2006 and has spent over 100 million GEL. During the last year alone 25, 000 patients have benefited from the program.