The world is seeking $ 14 billion to save $ 16 million from death

Peter Sandes, director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, said at least $ 14 billion was needed to strengthen efforts to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and to eradicate persistent pandemics making millions of victims.

"These funds can help save the lives of 16 million people and halve the number of deaths from all three diseases," Sands said.

These funds are used to strengthen health systems in poor and under-equipped countries to cope with current epidemics and are unable to cope with new potential epidemics.

"The new threats mean that there is no central region and that we need funds to protect and consolidate the gains we have made, otherwise these gains will be erased, the deaths will increase further and the prospects of eradicating epidemics will disappear, "said Sands in a statement.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is made up of a group of governments, civil society partners and the private sector, which invests around $ 4 billion a year to fight these diseases infectious.

The Fund was established in 2002 and has since reduced by one third the number of deaths due to AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, but the eradication of these epidemics is still a long way off.

In 2016, TB killed 1.6 million people, 300,000 of them HIV-positive, making it one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the world.

Malaria kills nearly half a million people each year, mostly infants or young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the case of AIDS, about 37 million people worldwide are infected with HIV and about 15 million of them do not receive the necessary antivirals.

Sands acknowledged how difficult it is to encourage international donors to commit funds to achieve this goal.

Given the extent to which the Fund could be achieved and its ability to attract the participation and investments of the governments of the countries affected by the epidemic, he was confident that this would have a significant impact.

"If we intensify the fight now, we will save the lives of millions of other people."