BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 22. Within the 76th session of the World Health Assembly, the Azerbaijani delegation held a meeting with the Global Fund (GB) led by Head of the Grant Management Division of the GB Mark Edington, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Health told Trend.
Minister of Health Teymur Musayev pointed out that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with the Global Fund.
He reminded that since 2005, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been actively involved in promoting measures to combat tuberculosis in the country.
"Currently, the Global Fund projects are being successfully implemented in Azerbaijan, which make a great and important contribution to our fight against tuberculosis," Musayev said.
In his speech, the minister underlined that in March of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the country as a malaria-free one.
"In this regard, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has spread information noting that this achievement of Azerbaijan was made possible thanks to the constant investment of resources and professionalism of medical personnel, as well as targeted measures for the prevention, early detection and treatment of all cases of malaria," Musayev added.
In conclusion, he expressed hope for further successful development of cooperation between the Ministry of Health of Azerbaijan and the Global Fund.
In turn, Edington highly appreciated the measures taken by the country on eliminating malaria in its areas.
He emphasized that last year the Republican Center for AIDS Control of the Ministry of Health, with the support of the Global Fund, launched a pilot "Pre-exposure Prophylaxis for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Prevention" project in Azerbaijan.
According to Edington, the new method involves the use of antiretroviral drugs by healthy people to prevent HIV infection. The current state of cooperation and potential opportunities for its development were discussed at the meeting.