India has signed two new grant agreements with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, paving the way for the disbursal of US$ 33 million over the next two years, and totaling US$ 129 million over five years. These vital new grants will help scale up the national HIV/AIDS prevention and control programme and expand the national TB control programme.

The first phase of the new US$ 100 million component for building capacity for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment - worth US$ 26.1 million - will support prevention of parent to child transmission of HIV/AIDS in the six high prevalence states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh, and also provide antiretroviral treatment for 4,120 pregnant women.

A further 12,000 additional AIDS patients will receive antiretroviral treatments over the first two-year phase through a partnership between NACO, four pharmaceutical companies and NGOs. Freedom Foundation (Bangalore), ARCON (Mumbai) and YRG Care (Chennai) are the lead non-governmental partners in the antiretroviral treatment and HIV prevention programme, which is expected to include participation from 1,000 community-based NGOs. The National AIDS Research Institute of Pune, National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases of Kolkata, MGM Medical College of Mumbai, and MGR Medical University of Chennai will be responsible for monitoring viral resistance in the project areas. The programme plans to further expand the number of health centres providing voluntary counseling and testing services nationally to 444 and the number of trained workers to 2,200, from both the public and private sectors. Over 7 million pregnant mothers will receive HIV counseling and voluntary testing services through this programme nationwide and 81 medical colleges in high prevalence states will be upgraded to expand access to ART for mothers and their families.

The first phase of the approved US$ 29 million dollar TB programme, amounting to US$ 7 million, will be for the national TB control programme. TB control activities will be expanded and consolidated in 56 districts of UP and Bihar, covering a population of 110 million people with DOTS (Directly Observed Therapy, Short Course) services. Part of this activity will be applied through the non-governmental TB Association of India extending DOTS services in the urban slums of Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

According to Meenakshi Datta Ghosh, head of National AIDS Control Organization, "The additional resources accruing from the Global Fund will enable implementation of a comprehensive package for people living with HIV AIDS, for prevention, care and treatment including the provisioning of anti retroviral therapy through public - private partnerships." Commenting on the grant, Ashok Rau, executive trustee & CEO of Freedom Foundation said: "For people who are already part of the care and support programme at the Freedom Foundation, this grant comes as a ray of hope to sustain them, and will enable us to include more people living with HIV in the programme."

These grants were originally approved on January 30, 2003 by the Board of the Global Fund at its second round of grant proposals, at the same time as India signed its first grant agreement with the Global Fund for US$ 5.6 million for TB control as the first phase in a five-year programme worth US$ 8.8 million. The Global Fund subsequently approved another US$ 15 million for HIV/TB prevention and treatment in its third round of grants.

Total commitment from the Global Fund to India now amounts to US$153 million over five years.