Global AIDS fund delays acceptance of new applications

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria on Friday announced a six-month delay on the acceptance of new grant applications because of low financial contributions from international donors, The New York Times reports. Fund officials had expected to request new grant proposals in June but now will not do so until November. The fund has received about $900 million of its $3.5 billion goal for 2005, according to executive director Richard Feachem. The fund will need about $20 billion by 2007 but is expected to receive only about half that amount in international contributions. United Nations officials last week at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, called on the United States to boost its financial support of the fund to $1 billion for fiscal 2005. But global AIDS coordinator Randall Tobias says the $200 million pledged by the U.S. government is "more than adequate."