Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew George Excerpts

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I am grateful, but the Minister must cut it short. Work needs to be done on these things. The answers are often far too long.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

As the Minister said, the current Government strongly support, as did the previous Government, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. What is the Minister’s assessment of the success of the country co-ordinating mechanisms, and particularly the efforts to ensure that co-infection of HIV and TB is well managed on a country basis?

[Mr O'Brien]

The hon. Gentleman makes an informed point. One way of ensuring that the global fund, which scores well on its effectiveness, gets even better is to ensure that when there are conflicts in the country co-ordinating mechanisms, they are addressed. The co-infection of HIV and TB is an increasingly well understood area of research and practice, and that understanding is shaping the programmes through the multilateral aid review, and will therefore inform those programmes going forward.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew George Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr O'Brien]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks, and he is aware that we are committed to spending up to £500 million as he notes, in particular in relation to developing an effective malaria vaccine. Theoretically, there is a real hope of such a vaccine in the future, and we believe that vaccine research therefore plays in important part, but at the same time should not detract from the need to get better at delivering what we know works now. Work on a future vaccine will be focused on what will be capable of being safely delivered, accessible to the poor and with sufficient efficacy to be one of the key tools in the armoury that will continue to have to be used in the battle against malaria.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

Further to that answer, what commitment can the Minister give to the Government’s approach to the talks on the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which will take place in September?

[Mr O'Brien]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question. He will be aware that that issue is currently being considered, and we are looking at all the representations received not only to work towards a negotiation of the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, but most importantly to build on the very good work that that fund, which is now the world’s largest health fund, has already demonstrated to date.