$14 billion pledged to fight AIDS, TB, malaria epidemics

Lyon: Governments, philanthropists and private firms pledged just over $14 billion Thursday for a plan to save 16 million lives, in a boost for the global fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
The money was promised at a replenishment meeting in Lyon, France, of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where host President Emmanuel Macron had exhorted countries to give as much as they can.
“These are not simply numbers, they are lives,” the French leader told delegates.
“The funds that are being asked of us are not… charity. It is a decision to invest against injustice,” he added, highlighting the disproportionate rate of infection and deaths from the three diseases in poor countries and among women and girls.
The fund had asked for $14 billion, a sum it says will save 16 million lives between 2021 and 2023.
“We are targeting to halve by 2023 the annual death toll from these three epidemics and we are targeting to avert some 234 million infections,” said the fund’s chief executive Peter Sands.