Global Fund invites Myanmar to apply for additional funding

"Health workers in Myanmar are confident that efforts to narrow the country's huge gap between access to, and need for, life-saving medicines to treat HIV/AIDS are back on track after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria invited the country to apply for additional funding," IRIN reports. "The agency's coordinator for Myanmar, Eamonn Murphy, said new funds will allow the country to close a 'treatment gap' where only one-third of the 120,000 people nationwide who need [antiretrovirals (ARVs)] receive them," the news service notes. "A spokesman for the Global Fund said it 'had encouraged an application by the country for more money' following an August visit to Myanmar by its general director," IRIN writes. "Health officials drafted a 'concept note' outlining how additional funding might be used, which will be reviewed by the Global Fund's board, Murphy said," according to the news service, which notes, "It offers two scenarios: the first ensures 85 percent of those who need ARVs receive them by 2015; while with the second, 76 percent of people would be covered, he said." The news service adds, "Based on feedback from the board, the government will choose a strategy for the proposal to be submitted early next year" (10/12).