US grants Ethiopia $1.4 billion to combat HIV/AIDS ArticleComments (0). Email PrintSave --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 30, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) - The United States government has donated 1.4 billion USD to support HIV and AIDS prevention activities in Ethiopia, the US Embassy in Addis Ababa disclosed on Wednesday. The funding through the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR, will be used to boost the implementation of HIV programs in Ethiopia, state-run Ethiopia News Agency (ENA) reported quoted the US Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Booth as saying. The grant announcement comes as former US president and PEPFAR founder, George W. Bush, is set to pay a visit to Ethiopia, Tanzania and Zambia, from 1-5 December 2011. In Ethiopia, Bush will attend an International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA), which will be held in from 4 to 8 December 2011in Addis Ababa. According to Ambassador Donald Booth, PEPFAR supported Ethiopia’s efforts to provide HIV counseling and testing to over 5.5 million people over the past year. AIDS related mortality rate has seen 70 percent drop between 2003 and 2007 in Addis Ababa due to increased access to treatment, he added. Since the America’s initiative to combat the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, was launched early in 2000, the US government has committed nearly $39 billion to funding for the AIDS epidemic. Currently, PEPFAR provides care and support for over 1.1 million people including 493,000 orphans and vulnerable children across Ethiopia. (ST) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "South Sudan Info - The Kob" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/SouthSudanKob?hl=en.
