WHO Raises African Budget 30 Percent to $949 Million

Africa will receive the World Health Organization's largest regional budget increase -- 30 percent to $949.5 million -- for efforts to combat HIV/AIDS and malaria in 2006-07, WHO's Africa director, Luis Gomes Sambo, said Tuesday at a meeting in Maputo, Mozambique. Forty-six African health ministers and international health experts are attending the five-day, WHO-sponsored meeting. WHO chief Jong-Wook Lee told conference attendees that AIDS and malaria threaten the lives of three million Africans and undermine the continent's development efforts. But despite the health challenges Africa faces, there has been progress in increasing antiretroviral (ARV) access, said Sambo. The number of Africans receiving ARVs tripled to 325,000 in 2004, compared to 100,000 the previous year, Sambo noted.

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