UN Provides Multimillion Dollar Grant to Fight AIDS in South Africa

The South African government has approved a $41 million dollar United Nations grant to help fight the AIDS pandemic, officials said on Thursday. The grant marks the first wide-scale opportunity for South Africans to receive AIDS drugs through the public health care system.

The money includes funds for AIDS drugs and HIV testing in KwaZulu-Natal province, where one in three adults has the virus. AIDS activists welcomed the grant from the UN Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. However, they blamed the South African government for delaying the process, since the Global Fund approved the grant more than a year ago. The government, citing technicalities, held up its approval until now.

"It's come very late but we hope that it is a sign that the government must realize it must do the right thing and begin treating people," said Nathan Geffen, spokesperson for the Treatment Action Campaign, an AIDS activist group.

"Today's grant signing is a turning point in South Africa," said Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund, in a statement. "Now we must work together to ensure the delivery of these services, including the antiretroviral treatment that is desperately needed by the South African people."

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