8 May, 2007 - Belarus will receive a USD 14.2 mln. grant to fight tuberculosis. An agreement to this end was signed yesterday between the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the UNDP Representative in Belarus.

The grant duration is for a 5–year period. Its major recipients are Belarus’ Ministry of Health, Penal Department of the Ministry of the Interior, and the Belarusian Red Cross Society.

Each year about 2 mln. people in the world die of TB, despite the existence of inexpensive treatment methods which bring positive results in 95 percent of cases. Belarus has been lately witnessing deterioration of the TB basic epidemiological indices. From 2002 through 2005, the TB prevalence rate increased from 51.7 to 54.3 per 100,000 people. In 2006, 5,142 new incidents were detected, thus bringing it to 52.8 per 100,000 population.

“Today is a remarkable day for all of us here, but even more for those in need of treatment and care related to tuberculosis. The grant is a product of very intensive and hard work of a group of Belarusian and international specialists who developed the proposal to the Global Fund in August 2006. In November the proposal was approved by the Board of the Global Fund and yesterday the grant agreement was signed,” Cihan Sultanoglu, UNDP Resident Representative in Belarus, noted at the press–conference.

The Global Fund’s grant will be used, in particular, for creation of an advanced system of diagnostics and registration of detected incidents of tuberculosis, and for establishment of a national reference–laboratory to conduct quality and efficient TB diagnosing. The project also envisages training of over 2,500 medical personnel engaged in anti–TB service, sisters of mercy of the Red Cross, lab–assistants, and medical staff of the penitentiary system in application of advanced methods of diagnostics, treatment and care of TB–diseased.

The grant will provide an opportunity for more than 7,000 people (civil healthcare patients and inmates of correctional institutions of Belarus) to undergo treatment with up–to–date first line anti–TB drugs. Treatment of the first 200 diseased with the most dangerous multi drug resistant tuberculosis strains will start soon. Thanks to the Global Fund’s grant, over 1,000 people are expected have an access to controlled outpatient treatment and product sets through the system of sisters of mercy of the Belarusian Red Cross Society.

For reference: the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was created to dramatically increase resources to fight three of the world's most devastating diseases, and to direct those resources to areas of greatest need. The Fund’s financial support has enhanced many countries’ potential in preventing these diseases in line with WHO standards. In 2004, Belarus received its first grant aimed at prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

For additional information please refer to UNDP Programme Analyst, Anna Chernyshova, at 227–45–27, or UNDP Communications Associate, Vladislav Khilkevich, at 227–38–17, e–mail: vladislav.khilkevich@undp.org.

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