A recent UNAIDS report, which was released on Thursday, revealed that the sudden withdrawal of US investment into AIDS programs has caused a "systemic shock". UN officials warn that if the funding isn't replaced, it could lead to more than 4 million AIDS-related deaths and 6 million more HIV infections by 2029.
The report stated that the funding losses have "already destabilized supply chains, led to the closure of health facilities, left thousands of health clinics without staff, set back prevention programs, disrupted HIV testing efforts and forced many community organizations to reduce or halt their HIV activities."
UN officials also fear that this could lead other major donors to scale back their support, which can reverse decades of progress against AIDS worldwide, and that the strong multilateral cooperation is in jeopardy because of wars, geopolitical shifts and climate change.
The billion that the United States pledged for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared virtually overnight in January, when US President Donald Trump ordered that all foreign aid be suspended and later moved to shutter the US AID agency.
The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by US President George Bush, the biggest-ever commitment by any country focused on a single disease.
UNAIDS called the program a “lifeline” for countries with high HIV rates, and said that it supported testing for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to data from Nigeria, PEPFAR also funded 99.9% of the country's budget for medicines taken to prevent HIV.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Angeli Achrekar, a UNAIDS deputy executive director who was PEPFAR's principal deputy coordinator until January 2023, said the program is under review by the Trump administration though Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver "to continue life-saving treatment."
"The extent to which it will continue in the future, we don't know," she told a video news conference with UN reporters in New York.
"We are cautiously hopeful that PEPFAR will continue to support both prevention and treatment services."
Even before the US funding cuts, progress against curbing HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said that half of all new infections are in sub-Saharan Africa.
Tom Ellman of Doctors Without Borders said that while some poorer countries were now moving to fund more of their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the US. "There's nothing we can do that will protect these countries from the sudden, vicious withdrawal of support from the US," said Ellman, head of the group's South Africa medical unit.
The US paid for most HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic records, all of which has now abruptly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.
“Without reliable data about how HIV is spreading, it will be incredibly hard to stop it,” he said.
The uncertainty comes in the wake of a twice-yearly injectable that many hope could end HIV. Studies published last year showed that the drug from pharmaceutical maker Gilead was 100% effective in preventing the virus.
At a launch event Thursday, South Africa's health minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the country would "move mountains and rivers to make sure every adolescent girl who needs it will get it," saying that the continent's past dependence upon US aid was "scary."
Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Yeztugo, a move that should have been a "threshold moment" for stopping the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the advocacy group Public Citizen.
But activists like Maybarduk said Gilead's pricing will put it out of reach of many countries that need it. Gilead has agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV rates but has excluded nearly all of Latin America, where rates are far lower but increasing.
"We could be ending AIDS," Maybarduk said. "Instead, the US is abandoning the fight."
(With PTI inputs)
About The Author
Comment List