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Press Release |
OTHER PRESS RELEASES |
5 January 2007 |
GLOBAL FUND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR KNIGHTED
Richard Feachem Recognized for His Leadership of the Global Fund
Geneva - Professor Richard Feachem has been named Knight Commander
of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
II.This honour recognizes his role in leading the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria from its inception.
“I would like to take this opportunity to express to Sir Richard the sincere congratulations of the entire Board,” said Dr Carol Jacobs, Chair of the Global Fund Board. “This is recognition at the highest level of his outstanding contribution to the global community through his leadership of the Global Fund from its start to becoming the leading health financing institution it is today. It is truly a fitting climax to Sir Richard’s tenure as Executive Director.”
Professor Feachem has worked in international health and development for more than 30 years and has published extensively on public health and health policy. He took up his position as the first Executive Director of the Global Fund in July 2002, having served as the founding Director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of California San Francisco and the University of California Berkeley.
From 1995 until 1999 Professor Feachem was Director for Health, Nutrition
and Population at the World Bank. Previously (1989-1995), he was
Dean of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (learn
more).
Since its launch five years ago, the Global Fund has become the primary financier of the world’s fight against malaria, AIDS and tuberculosis (TB), supporting local efforts with $6.8 billion committed across 136 countries. As of December 2006, 770,000 people have begun antiretroviral (ARV) treatment through Global Fund-supported programs, a doubling since December 2005. Taken together, Global Fund-supported programs to combat malaria have distributed more than 18 million insecticide-treated bed nets by December, 2006. In addition, tuberculosis programs have detected and treated more than 2 million TB cases under DOTS, the internationally approved TB control strategy.
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The Global Fund is a unique global public-private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing. The Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.
Further information, please contact:
Jon Lidén |
Nicolas Demey |
