LETTER

LETTRE

  Global fight against AIDS, TB, Malaria

 

Health workers are the mainstay of any well-functioning health system; the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified their contributions to communities around the world.  Much of the success of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria over the last twenty years is due to the efforts of these health workers. 
    These health heroes are identifying and fighting disease outbreaks, providing vital health services, ensuring that essential supplies reach those most in need, advocating for equal access to health care, and ensuring communities are prepared for future health threats.  More than two million community health workers are on the front lines in countries where the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria invests. 
    Health workers around the world have been, and are, fighting to end HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria even as COVID-19 stretched, and is still stretching, health systems to, and even beyond, their breaking points. 
     Canada needs to invest CAD$ 1.2 billion in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria ahead of the Seventh Replenishment Conference.  This is needed to help the world recover from the devastating impacts that COVID-19 has had on the longstanding epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria, help strengthen health systems, and help build a healthier, more equitable, pandemic-proof world for all of us.
Marnie Shaw
Calgary, Alberta