Uganda has been selected as one of the 12 countries to benefit from grants from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to fight HIV/AIDS.

OPEC has earmarked $8.1million (sh14.5b) to be spent through the World Health Organisation projects in the beneficiary countries, the UN agency said in a statement.

Other countries to receive the aid are Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Togo, Tanzania and Zambia.

The money is to be drawn from the HIV/AIDS account of the OPEC International Fund for Development, established in June 2001.

The fund supports projects aimed at scaling up prevention, increasing support and care to people living with HIV/AIDS and reducing countries vulnerability to the disease.

The World Health Organisation director general, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, said countries like Uganda and Senegal had demonstrated that the HIV epidemic could be controlled.