The Ministry of Health is in talks with central government departments over how to fund disease prevention programs in China when a major international foundation ends its funding.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided last November that upper middle income countries with less than an extreme disease burden would no longer have their grants renewed for programs fighting the three diseases.

However, the health ministry said yesterday that it would make sure that the disease control programs involved wouldn't be affected by the withdrawal of the international funding.

The fund's new policy came into effect on January 1 and, as a result, funding for ongoing disease prevention programs in China will end.

Programs covering AIDS prevention and control will end this December, while malaria programs will end in the middle of the year and TB programs in July next year.

The fund was giving China about 4.44 billion yuan (US$704.7 million) to battle the three diseases - 1.7 billion yuan on AIDS, 2.05 billion yuan on TB and 690 million on malaria, according to the health ministry's AIDS Prevention department.

Some grassroots AIDS prevention and control facilities have expressed concern over the continuance of ongoing programs after the global fund removes its support.

The global fund suspended funds worth several million US dollars last year due to the poor involvement of non-government organizations and some "problems" concerning financial management.

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