As a founding partner of the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB), and Malaria is at the forefront of the global COVID-19 response.

Since 2002, the organization has saved more than 44 million lives, decreasing deaths caused by AIDS, TB, and malaria by 46% globally, while providing COVID-19 tests, treatments (including medical oxygen), and personal protective equipment (PPE) to millions of people across the world since the beginning of COVID-19.

“The Global Fund fights injustice which fuels infectious diseases,” the Global Fund’s Executive Director, Peter Sands, told Global Citizen. “We are the biggest organization fighting the deadliest infectious diseases – HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria, and now COVID-19 – at scale, worldwide.”

“We should protect everyone, everywhere, from the deadliest infectious diseases, those we face today, and those we will inevitably face tomorrow,” added Sands.

Pre-pandemic, fighting infectious disease was already a significant challenge, but since 2004, deaths from infectious diseases have dropped by half.

Today, the pandemic has almost stalled the life-saving programs, disrupting the delivery of health services and threatening to reverse this hard-won progress. A rapid and decisive COVID-19 response by the Global Fund partnership is working hard to meet these shortfalls, leveraging global partnerships to protect health workers and ensure communities are prepared for this pandemic and the next.

As a long-time partner of Global Citizen, the Global Fund joined Global Citizen for Global Goal: Unite for Our Future, announcing US$168 million in commitments for its COVID-19 response.

To find out more about the Global Fund’s work tackling some of the world’s most urgent infectious diseases, Global Citizen spoke with Sands following the one year anniversary of Global Goal: Unite for Our Future — a summit and concert held by Global Citizen and the European Commission in June 2020 — and the launch of the Global Fund Results Report in September.

Read the full article about global fund to fight COVID-19 by Camille May at Global Citizen.