Armenia Receives International Grant to Fight AIDS

1 October 2005
Red Nova

Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo

Yerevan, 30 September: Armenia has received a grant worth 4m dollars to fight HIV/AIDS within the framework of the project of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The recipient of the grant is the World Vision office in Armenia.

The grant will be used to implement the second stage of the national programme to combat AIDS, a source in the World Vision office in Yerevan said.

In 2003-2005, the fund allocated 3.2m dollars to implement the first stage of the project.

An official ceremony to sign the document on the allocation of the grant is scheduled for 5 October this year.

According to the republican HIV/AIDS centre, by 1 September 356 HIV-positive cases had been registered in Armenia and 92 people had been diagnosed as having AIDS. A total of 70 people have died since the first HIV/AIDS infected Armenian patient was registered.

However, specialists of the centre say that official figures cannot reflect the real situation in the country, as the actual figures are 10 times higher. Specialists of the centre believe that over 3,000 people are HIV-positive in Armenia.

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