One billion pounds. This is the sum pledged by the United Kingdom to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. With such a donation, Great Britain joined France and the European Nordic countries in the battle to defeat some of the world’s top infectious disease killers.

Tuberculosis (TB), in particular, is responsible for 9 million cases and 1.4 million deaths, almost all of which – 98 percent - occur in low and middle-income countries. The Global Fund provides almost 90 percent of all international financing for TB programmes, thus being the single largest and most important international donor for research programmes against tubercolosis in the World Health Organisation. Programmes that allowed to diagnose and treat 9.7 million individuals with TB.

The Global Fund is currently going through a ‘replenishment’ process this year, in order to raise funds from donors for the next three years (2014-2016) and will greatly benefit from UK’s significant contribution. Health organizations are now calling on the European Commission and European Union member states to join these efforts.