GENEVA, Dec 4 (AFP) - The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched a 355 million Swiss franc (236.6 million euros, 196.1 million dollars) appeal Monday to fund 81 programmes worldwide in 2001-2002.

Federation secretary general Didier Cherpitel said that responding to illness and death from public health emergencies was becoming a more important part of the federation's work.

"The emphasis we are placing on health programmes in the next year is an indication that despite great strides in science and technology, the lives of millions are at risk from epidemics such as AIDS/HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and polio," Cherpitel said in a press release.

"Natural disasters killed some 80,000 people last year but 13 million died from infectious diseases,' he added.

Forty-one percent of the appeal amount is for health and disaster preparedness programmes, while 31 percent is for disaster response.

Twenty million Red Cross/Red Crescent volunteers are active in the day-to-day programmes of the federation's 176 member national societies.

001204
AF001267

Copyright © AFP or Agence France-Presse, 2000 - All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission..  http://www.afp.com/