Statement by GAVI CEO, Seth Berkley MD, congratulating Professor Michel Kazatchkine on an extraordinary decade of involvement with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria

Michel Kazatchkine

Professor Michel Kazatchkine. Photo credit: GFATM/2011

I join other leaders in the global health community in congratulating Professor Michel Kazatchkine on an extraordinary decade of involvement with The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, including five as its Executive Director.

Professor Kazatchkine has overseen a period of exponential growth in funding for AIDS, TB and malaria treatment and prevention which all of us working in public health have been excited to see.

Dramatic turnaround

Much more remains to be done, but there are signs of a dramatic turnaround in the fight against these devastating diseases. New HIV infections are declining in many of the countries most affected by the epidemic.

More and more countries are in a position to target the elimination of malaria from their territories. The world is on course to halve TB mortality by 2015 in comparison with 1990. As of December 2011 Global Fund-supported programmes save an estimated 100,000 lives every month.

Partnership with the Global Fund

Of course we should continue to search for new vaccines to strengthen the fight against these diseases and we look forward to working with the Global Fund and others on making these available to the world’s poorest countries.

Michel has spent the past 25 years fighting AIDS as a leading physician, researcher, administrator, advocate, policy maker, and diplomat. He is a great scientist, a terrific advocate and good friend – all of us in the global health community wish him well.

We look forward to working with Gabriel Jaramillo as General Manager and continuing to work in partnership with the Global Fund. 

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