GENEVA: Kuwait's permanent delegate to the UN Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim stressed yesterday Kuwait's keenness on supporting the objectives of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, revealing that his nation donated $500,000 for such a noble cause. This came in Ghunaim's statement yesterday following his meeting with the fund's Executive Director Peter Sands at the headquarters of the fund in Geneva.

Kuwait has provided a voluntary contribution of half a million dollars to the fund in continuation of Kuwait's approach to support humanitarian action in the world, especially since a large part of the fund's work is directed towards combating these epidemics in many developing countries and Islamic countries, Ghunaim said. Kuwait was a pioneer in financing the operations of the fund immediately after its establishment with a UN resolution in 2001, he added.

Recent reports refers to outbreaks of tuberculosis and cholera in a number of countries such as Yemen, Somalia or Afghanistan, which requires urgent intervention to prevent their spread in the region. He also stressed the need to take into account the existence of some of these epidemics and infectious diseases in refugee camps and displaced in a number of countries in the region, which requires a rapid access to a preventive intervention to avoid its spread.

He added that Kuwait will spare no effort to support the affected countries, stressing that cooperation between Kuwait and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will continue to serve the international humanitarian agenda in the future. - KUNA