China will receive US$121.2 million from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, according to China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

According to the agreement, to be signed today, China will receive US$39.4 million for the prevention and control of malaria. This will cover 121 counties in six provinces and benefit 63.8 million rural residents including 19 million identified as being at high risk.

The HIV/AIDS fund, totaling US$28.9 million, will help control the epidemic in seven provinces and regions.

Twenty provinces will share US$52.9 million to fight TB with the aim of reducing the mortality rates in drug-resistant cases, infection in HIV groups and among the migrant population.

China currently has an estimated 650,000 HIV sufferers including 75,000 with AIDS.? The country also has around 5 million TB patients with 80 percent of them living in the countryside. And 740,000 new cases of malaria were reported in 2004.

China has successfully applied to eight donation programs from the Global Fund including five still in operation. The total amount of funding has reached US$390 million according to the CDC.

The Global Fund was created to finance a dramatic turn-around in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. These diseases kill over 6 million people worldwide each year and the numbers are growing. To date the Global Fund has committed US$ 5.4 billion in 131 countries to support aggressive interventions against all three.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2006)