Global Fund awards Tanzania $111 million grant for ITNs

Tanzania will receive an $111 million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to be used in the country's fight against malaria, Ray Chambers, U.N. special envoy for malaria, said at a meeting in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on Monday, Reuters reports.

Chambers said the money will be allocated to purchase 14 million ITNs "for universal coverage" and that the "Global Fund representatives ... have committed to sign the Round 8 Grant agreement next week and they are ready to disburse the money."

Convincing people in Africa to use the ITNs is a challenge, according to Chambers, who is in Tanzania with WHO Director General Margaret Chan to highlight the country's success in combatting malaria. "The average, it appears, in Africa, (is that) one out of two people will not sleep under a net unless they are reminded, encouraged, there are inspirational messages on the radio," he said (Obulutsa, 8/18).