Description

In an open letter to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and TB (the Global Fund), NCD Alliance and a group of leading global health experts call for the full funding of noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention and care services in the organisation's programming. 

The letter, addressed to the Global Fund Executive Director, Peter Sands, the Board and Members of The Global Fund Strategy Committee, notes the next 2023-2028 strategy as a unique opportunity for the inclusion of integrated and people-centred care approaches that includes NCDs and co-morbidities. 

Due to the bidirectional relationship between NCDs, and HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria, the incorporation of NCD programing could lead to improved quality of life and treatment outcomes, and to reduced premature mortality. Action now would build on the recommendations of the Global Fund Board’s approval of the framework for financing co-infections and co-morbidities of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, as set forth in GF/B33/11, on 1 April 2015.

Given the growing focus on universal health coverage (UHC), health system strengthening and the clear evidence of NCD comorbidities with HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, a bold approach to health services integration is needed to both protect the hard-earned gains for the three diseases over the last few decades and to ensure a better quality of life for people with these diseases.

Now is the time for the Global Fund to act on the growing impact of NCDs on the physical and mental health and wellbeing of people living with and at risk of HIV, TB, and malaria, and on the sustainability and resilience of health systems.  The price on action to address the comorbidities of HIV, TB, and malaria with NCDs is far outweighed by the human cost of inaction.