The Global Fund’s 2022 Results Report released earlier this month finds a significant rebound in 2021 for programs working to defeat HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on the fight against the three diseases, leading to the decline of key programmatic results across the three diseases for the first time in the history of the Global Fund. When the pandemic hit countries where the Global Fund works, the partnership rapidly mounted a response to deliver additional resources. This year, the new report shows those investments paid off and recovery is underway.  

“By working together, the Global Fund partnership has saved 50 million lives over the past two decades, proof that global commitment and community leadership can force the world’s deadliest infectious diseases into retreat,” said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. “Although most countries that fight HIV, TB and malaria have started to recover from the ravages of COVID-19, we need to accelerate our efforts if we are to fully recover lost ground and get back on track towards ending these diseases by 2030.”

The Global Fund responded swiftly to COVID-19, providing significant funding to country responses through our COVID-19 response mechanism (C19RM) and leveraging our expertise and strong global networks. Since March 2020, the Global Fund has invested more than US$4.4 billion to fight the pandemic and mitigate its impact on HIV, TB and malaria. The funding enabled countries to rapidly adapt existing programs, purchase personal protective equipment, diagnostics, treatments and medical supplies and deploy prevention campaigns. This rapid response helped us avoid the worst-case scenario of a surge in deaths and cases across the three diseases.

Decades of experience in fighting HIV, TB and malaria allowed many low- and middle-income countries to respond to COVID-19, using the same laboratories, disease surveillance, community networks, trained health workers and supply chains that were already in place to fight HIV, TB and malaria.