Malawi and Global Fund launch latest grants to speed up progress in fight against HIV, TB and malaria – News

Malawi and Global Fund launch latest grants to speed up progress in fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria

August 27, 2024

– The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the Government of Malawi and World Vision Malawi today launched three latest grants totaling greater than US$525 million to support efforts to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria while strengthening health and social systems across the country between 2024 and 2027.

“Global Fund Grants go beyond HIV, TB and malaria – from recruiting health workers to setting up oxygen plants and building health posts in villages to ensure that no one has to walk more than five kilometres to access healthcare,” said Hon. Khumbize Chiponda, Malawi’s Minister of Health. “Our system was so fragile that we couldn’t fix it in a day; it’s a process. These new grants give us the opportunity to get it to a point where our health system can withstand climate shocks and provide high-quality services to the people of Malawi.”

“Malawi has been a key partner of the Global Fund over the years, making significant progress in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, while building resilient and sustainable health systems,” said Mark Edington, head of grants management on the Global Fund. “The grants signed today reflect a strong and renewed commitment by the government and people of Malawi to combat these three diseases, despite challenges such as climate change, which has a significant impact on malaria.”

In the case of HIV, the grants are intended to support Malawi in its efforts to consolidate control of the HIV epidemic by meeting and exceeding the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. In addition, they aim to scale back mortality amongst people living with HIV by increasing comprehensive, patient-centered take care of people living with HIV, including treatment of noncommunicable diseases comparable to diabetes and hypertension. High-impact prevention services, comparable to HIV and syphilis testing, and prevention services, including condom distribution and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), might be brought closer to communities, including key populations and adolescent girls and young women.

The TB grants aim to assist reduce TB incidence and mortality by accelerating rapid molecular testing, preventive therapy and optimisation of second-line treatment for drug-resistant TB, supporting the country in its transition to BPaLM. Investments will further consolidate a patient-centred approach to TB care that also relies on community-based interventions, including door-to-door TB screening and community sputum collection, and peer-led treatment monitoring.

The malaria grant will help Malawi eliminate malaria by 2030 by increasing the proportion of the population protected by not less than one malaria vector control intervention from 37% in 2022 to not less than 90% by 2030, and maintaining high testing and treatment rates. It will support Malawi’s transition from indoor residual spraying to a more sustainable approach to vector control through the mass distribution of dual-active insecticide-treated nets. It can even support improved integrated community case management (iCCM) for pneumonia and diarrhea, along with malaria treatment for kids under 5 years of age.

Funds from the three grants also aim to strengthen health systems to support Malawi universal medical health insurance programThis includes constructing strong laboratory systems and infrastructure, disease surveillance, a health product management system, and operationalizing community health systems policies, including training and remuneration of community medical examiners.

The Malawi Ministry of Health and World Vision Malawi will implement the grants with the support and engagement of communities most affected by the three diseases, with a selected deal with identifying and addressing human rights and gender issues.

Since 2003, the Global Fund has invested greater than $2.1 billion in Malawi. Despite being a low-income country of 20 million people, Malawi has made remarkable progress in recent times in controlling the epidemics of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, helping to enhance overall life expectancy from 44.7 years in 2000 to 62.5 years in 2021.

The number of latest HIV infections and AIDS deaths has declined dramatically (by 72% and 67%, respectively, between 2010 and 2023), and by the top of 2023, multiple million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy.

Overall mortality from tuberculosis has fallen by about 50% between 2015 and 2022, and tuberculosis detection and treatment rates have continued to enhance: 90% of the greater than 9,000 individuals with tuberculosis who began treatment within the second half of 2022 were successfully treated.

Collaboration in TB and HIV interventions has improved over the past five years, resulting in high HIV testing rates amongst TB patients (>99%) and high antiretroviral therapy coverage amongst co-infected patients (>99%). Although Malawi continues to be within the control phase of the malaria epidemic, significant progress has been made within the fight against the disease. The malaria mortality rate has fallen by about 70% over 20 years, largely as a result of highly effective testing and treatment, including on the community level.