Press Release

OPEC Fund and World Health Organization to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa

21/2005 March 15, 2005, Vienna, Austria

The OPEC Fund for International Development today approved a grant of US$3.5 million towards a joint OPEC Fund/WHO Project on Integrating HIV/AIDS Treatment in Health Systems in Africa. The initiative aims to strengthen the capacity of national health systems to design and implement strategies for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, in particular antiretroviral therapy.

The six concerned countries are Angola , Benin , Cameroon , Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Lesotho. Accounting for more than 60% of all people living with HIV globally, sub-Saharan Africa remains the region most severely affected by the virus.

The US$6 million joint project is to be implemented within the context of the WHO/UNAIDS “3 by 5 Initiative,” which seeks to provide antiretroviral treatment to three million AIDS sufferers in 50 developing and transitional countries by 2005. Antiretroviral therapy can extend and improve the lives of AIDS victims and has transformed perceptions of HIV/AIDS from a fatal disease to a manageable, chronic illness. The treatment is not, however, universally available, and an estimated 3.8 million Africans are still without access to it.

Activities to be carried out under the two-year project focus on building capacities for the scaling-up of effective treatment delivery. Working closely with the health authorities of the concerned countries, the project will help draw up national strategic plans, devise a surveillance and monitoring system for HIV drug resistance, and strengthen capacities for drug procurement and supply management. The initiative is the second to be implemented jointly by the OPEC Fund and WHO.

The Fund grant will be drawn from its HIV/AIDS Special Grant Account, which was launched in 2001 with initial resources of US$15 million. Subsequent replenishments have boosted the Account to US$35 million. The Fund is working with several international organizations engaged in the global campaign against the pandemic, including UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNECA, WHO and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Fund-sponsored projects are currently ongoing in all developing regions of the world.

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