Although this Xinhua article is based on a press release it is always interesting to see the official Chinese view of the 3D Fund.
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3-D fund to provide new aid to Myanmar to fight three diseases
The Three Disease (3-D) Fund is considering to provide a new aid of 20 million U.S. dollars to Myanmar to support its fight against such diseases as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, according to a press release of the British Embassy on Thursday.
Quoting remarks in London of Gareth Thomas MP, Minister for International Development of the United Kingdom, the release said the 3-D Fund will help stop the spread of the diseases by supporting work through national and international non- governmental organizations, the United Nations System and local public health teams.
The release stressed the need for the Myanmnar authorities to ensure provision of a supportive operating environment for the fund and the work be guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality.
The 3-D Fund will focus on priority areas identified in the three national strategies for HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, it said.
The 3-D Fund was developed in 2006 for an operational period of five years by a group of six donors comprising the European Commission, Sweden's Sida, the Netherlands, United Kingdom's Department for International Development, Norway and Australia's Aus AID to compensate for grants which were suspended in August 2005 by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria.
The initial 99.5 million dollars' 3-D Fund included commitments of 36 million dollars from the United Kingdom Department for International Development, over 11 million dollars from the Australian Government Aid Program (Aus AID)'s and 770,000 US dollars from Norway.
According to the release, the first funding of 2.5 million dollars to Myanmar was approved in November 2006.
Meanwhile, a recent workshop involving Myanmar, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS stated that 338,911 people were estimated to have lived with HIV/AIDS in 2004 and the HIV prevalence in Myanmar has reduced from 1.5 percent in 2000 to 1.3 percent in 2005.
It is estimated that about 100,000 new TB patients develop annually and about half of them are infectious cases, the Myanmar health ministry said, disclosing that Myanmar achieved 95 percent TB case detection rate and 84 percent treatment success rate in 2005.
Meanwhile, the trend of malaria morbidity and mortality has been decreasing at present with malaria morbidity per 1,000 population reducing from 24.5 in 1988-89 to 9.3 in 2005-06, while its mortality down from 10.4 to 3.1 correspondingly, according to the health ministry.
Myanmar has designated AIDS, TB and malaria as three major communicable diseases of national concern and efforts are being made to combat the three diseases.
Source: Xinhua
