Press Release: World AIDS Day 2009 – European Commission tops a billion euros invested in the fight against the global AIDS epidemic

On the eve of World AIDS Day 2009 (1 December), the European Commission can announce that it has invested over one billion euros in the fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. As a founding member of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the European Commission has to date pledged €1,072.5 million covering the period 2002-2010 and has recently made new policy commitments to do more, better, together. According to the latest figures, new HIV infections have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years and that the most progress is seen in sub-Saharan Africa. However worldwide, the number of people living with HIV now reaches 33 million, with the fastest spread of the epidemic occurring on the threshold of the European Union, in the neighbouring countries of Eastern Europe.

European Commission: DG Research: HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis http://ec.europa.eu/research/health/infectious-diseases/poverty-diseases/index_en.html

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