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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Global Fund gives green light to new project on fighting HIV/AIDS in Serbia

Belgrade, 29 November 2006

President of the Committee for Fighting HIV/AIDS Tomica Milosavljevic stated today that Global Fund, an international foundation for fighting AIDS, has approved a donation of $12.2 million to Serbia for a new five-year long project.

Author: Tanjug

At a press conference held on the occasion of December 1, World AIDS Day, Milosavljevic stressed that the project will be implemented by the health ministry and will aim to reduce and stop the spreading of the HIV virus, as well as provide support and medical treatment to infected people.

Speaking about the successful cooperation with the Global Fund, he recalled that at the beginning of their cooperation in 2003 Serbia received $3.5 million in aid.

According to Milosavljevic, the results of the project have been positively assessed and by 2012 Serbia should receive $12.2 million in aid. It is also important that Serbia has finally realised the priorities in fighting AIDS, and these are recognition and prevention of further spreading of the virus, he added.

He also recalled that the health ministry drafted the National Strategy for Fighting HIV and opened medical and counselling centres on a voluntary basis.

Centres for treating HIV will also be opened at Novi Sad and Kragujevac clinical centres, said the Minister.

According to Milosavljevic, the Committee for Fighting HIV/AIDS carried out a project to educate health workers, teachers and students and realised media campaigns with the aim of reducing discrimination against HIV positive people.

President of the UN theme group for HIV/AIDS Rastislav Vrbensky said that every 15 seconds another young person gets infected with HIV virus somewhere in the world and that out of 30 persons between 15 and 24 years of age, infected in Serbia since 2005, three are below 18 years of age.

Vrbensky said that the Global Fund's donation will be of great assistance to Serbia, but stressed that the fight against HIV/AIDS must have an institutional framework.

The Serbian Red Cross and NGOs will also be included in the project's realisation. Special attention will be paid to the highest-risk groups, but also to regions that have until now been neglected, such as Kosovo-Metohija, where the project will be implemented both in Serbian and Albanian.