Mozambique on Friday signed four grant agreements with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for $51 million over the next two years to fund treatment and prevention programs for the three diseases, according to a Global Fund release. The grants, which were approved as part of the fund's second round of grant proposals, include $30 million for HIV/AIDS programs, which will help build upon existing government, community and nongovernmental organization programs, including peer education, health care worker training, condom promotion and distribution, voluntary counseling and testing and home-based care programs. The grants also will help create 50 new voluntary counseling and testing centers over the next five years, establish 56 more day clinics and provide antiretroviral treatment for 20,000 people living with HIV/AIDS through 22 integrated health networks in the country. In addition, mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention programs will be scaled up to treat 20,000 more infants over a five-year period, according to the release. Officials estimate that 14% of Mozambique's 18 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and 60,000 of them are orphans, according to the release. Global Fund Executive Director Richard Feachem said, "These grants are a crucial step forward for Mozambique. The government is visibly committed to a comprehensive approach to fighting all three diseases. These grants will support the necessary infrastructure to implement their national strategy with the involvement of the communities concerned." Mozambique's Minister of Health Dr. Francisco Ferreira Songane said, "Now it is up to us to prove that the programs are useful, workable, doable -- that is the challenge before us" (Global Fund release, 4/2).

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