Clarification on Herald story “Acute ARV shortage hits Zim”

Harare, 11 September, 2012: UNDP as the Principal Recipient of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis would like to make a clarification on the story titled “Acute ARV shortage hits Zim” published in The Herald, 11 September, 2012.

The story attributes the shortage of anti-retroviral drugs in public institutions partly to “delays in the disbursement of funds by the Global Fund to Fight HIV and Aids.” It is also claimed in the story that the Global Fund is working in 22 districts in Zimbabwe.
 
This is erroneous and misleading.
 
As a matter of fact, there was no disbursement scheduled for January for ARVs since other funders (NAC, USAID & CHAI) were covering ARVs for that period until the signing of the Phase 2 grants in April 2012.
 
Two disbursements were made, dated May 15 and June 16. The first disbursement of US$29.7 million included US$20 million for ARVs for 2012 according to the application submitted by the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) for Phase 2. The second disbursement for US$16.6 million was made for other health products.
 
There is another disbursement under review amounting to US$ 112 million which is to be released before the end of September, with US$71.5 million for ARVs, including a buffer stock for 6 months for the entire adult patient population currently on treatment in order to avoid treatment disruption.
 
Furthermore, the Global Fund covers drugs funding for Zimbabwe’s national program. Funding is therefore not restricted to 22 districts as wrongly stated in the article.