Christof Maletsky
6 February 2003
THE Namibian Government says it spends a massive US$39 million (N$331,5 million) a year on the fight against HIV-AIDS.
In its proposal approved by the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria at the end of last week, the Ministry of Health and its partners said Namibia was "extraordinarily affected" by the three killer diseases.
National HIV prevalence is now at 22 per cent while 160 000 people live with the disease.
Although Government spends US$39 million a year on HIV and about US$70 per capita on health, the value of the Namibian dollar was going down and the country was "operating on tight fiscal constraints", the proposal said.
The Geneva-based Fund approved N$989 million over five years for Namibia with N$128 million to be dispatched during the first year.
Of the N$128 million for the first year, N$106 million will go to HIV-AIDS, N$5 million to TB and N$17 million to malaria.
Health Permanent Secretary Dr Kalumbi Shangula said the money will be in addition to what Namibia and its donors are pumping into the health system.
He said the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme started last year while tenders were approved for the anti-retroviral programme which will start any time now.
"The Global Fund money will take some time before it will be available," he emphasised, pointing out that some countries whose grants were approved last April only received the money in January.
Shangula attended the Geneva meeting where the funding announcements were made.
The new Chair of the Global Fund is US Secretary for Health, Tommy Thompson, who succeeded Uganda's Dr Chrispus Kiyonga.
The Deputy Chair is Thailand's Dr Suwit Wilbulpolprasert.
Shangula said Africa supported Thailand during the elections because it is a developing country that produces generic medical drugs.
"We are not very comfortable with the position of the US, they are strong on patents and with the candidate of Thailand being quite strong, we hope that our interest is well represented," Shangula told The Namibian.
Generic drugs [not having a brand name] are much cheaper than patented drugs, which carry an official licence given to a certain company to produce them.
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