Tanzania To Receive $111 Million For Malaria Bed
Nets
Tanzania
is expected to receive $111 million for treated bed
nets to fight malaria from The Global Fund for Aids,
Tuberculosis and Malaria.
According to a Senior UN Envoy, The Global Fund is
helping Tanzania through the distribution of treated
nets, among other things.
In the words of Ray Chambers, U.N. special envoy for
malaria, "Global Fund representatives have committed
to sign the Round 8 Grant agreement next week and
they are ready to disburse the money. The money is
going to go to 14 million bed nets for universal
coverage. To date, it has given Tanzania at least
$128 million for malaria. "
The Tanzanian government says the disease, which
kills nearly 1 million people worldwide annually,
claims between 60,000 and 80,000 lives every year in
the east African country. Worst affected are
pregnant women and children.
Tanzania's government says malaria takes away about
3.4 percent of the country's economic output.
Chambers, who is accompanying the Director General
of the World Health Organisation, Margaret Chan, on
a visit to highlight Tanzania's success in fighting
malaria, said the challenge in Africa was convincing
people to use nets once they got them.
Reuters/ Funke