New Delhi, Nov 12 : International funding agency, the Global Fund, has earmarked $2.4 billion to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria worldwide, including India.

"It is the ninth time the Global Fund board approved new proposals to support programmes fighting the three diseases," an official statement said here Thursday.

The total two-year value of the programmes recommended for funding is $2.4 billion. With this, the Global Fund has now approved a total $18.4 billion for 144 countries since it was created in
2002.    

"These grants enable countries around the world to address some of the main problems they are struggling with every day," Ethiopian Health Minister and Chair of the Global Fund Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying in the statement.

The Global Fund, an international financing institution that "invests the world's money to save lives", also approved the roll-out of the pilot phase of a facility to reduce prices for effective malaria medicines (AMFm). (IANS)