US funding for HIV programs must be replaced to avoid millions of deaths: the UN – National
Years of investment in the Americans in AIDS programs have reduced the number of people killed by the disease at the lowest levels observed in more than three decades, and have provided vital drugs for some of the most vulnerable in the world.
But in the past six months, the sudden withdrawal of American money has caused a “systemic shock”, have warned UN officials, adding that if the funding is not replaced, this could lead to more than four million AIDS deaths and six million additional HIV by 2029.
“The current wave of funding loss has already destabilized supply chains, has led to the closure of health establishments, left thousands of health clinics without staff, to find prevention programs, has disrupted HIV screening efforts and has forced many community organizations to reduce or stop their HIV activities,” said UNAIDS in a report published Thursday.
Onusida also said that it feared that other main donors could also reduce their support, reversing decades of progress against AIDS in the world – and that strong multilateral cooperation is in danger due to wars, geopolitical changes and climate change.
The 4 billion dollars that the United States has promised for the global HIV response for 2025 disappeared practically overnight in January when US President Donald Trump ordered that any foreign aid was suspended and then moved to close the American aid agency.
Andrew Hill, an HIV expert at the University of Liverpool, who is not linked to the United Nations, said that if Trump had the right to spend money as he judges the appropriate, “any responsible government would have given a prior warning so that countries can plan”, instead of exchanging patients in Africa when the clinics were closed overnight.
The US President’s emergency plan for the relief of AIDS, or PEPFAR, was launched in 2003 by US President George W. Bush, the greatest commitment by any country focused on a single disease.
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The UNUSIDS has described the “rescue buoy” program for countries with high HIV rates, and said it supported tests for 84.1 million people, treatment for 20.6 million, among other initiatives. According to Nigeria data, PEPFAR also financed 99.9% of the country’s budget for drugs taken to prevent HIV.
In 2024, there have been around 630,000 AIDS deaths worldwide, according to an estimate of UNUSIDs – the figure has remained about the same since 2022 after having culminated at around 2 million dead in 2004.
Even before the American financing cuts, progress against the limitation of HIV was uneven. UNAIDS said half of all new infections are in sub -Saharan Africa.
Tom Ellman, doctors of the Borders without borders, said that if some poor countries were now traveling to finance more from their own HIV programs, it would be impossible to fill the gap left by the United States
“We can do nothing that will protect these countries from the sudden and vicious withdrawal of the United States,” said Ellman, director of doctors without the medical unit of South African borders.
Experts also fear another loss: data. The United States has paid most of HIV surveillance in African countries, including hospital, patient and electronic files, which have all suddenly ceased, according to Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of the Global Health Institute at Duke University.
“Without reliable data on how HIV spreads, it will be incredibly difficult to stop it,” he said.
Uncertainty occurs as an injectable twice a year could end HIV, as studies published last year showed that the medication of the Gilead pharmaceutical manufacturer was 100% effective to prevent the virus.
During a launch event on Thursday, the Minister of Health of South Africa, Aaron wordsoaledi, said that the country “would move mountains and rivers to ensure that each teenager who needs it
Last month, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, called Yeztugo, a decision that should have been a “threshold moment” to stop the AIDS epidemic, said Peter Maybarduk of the Public Advocacy Citizen.
But activists like Maybarduk said that Gilead prices will take it out of the reach of many countries that need it. Gilead agreed to sell generic versions of the drug in 120 poor countries with high HIV levels, but excluded almost all of Latin America, where the rates are much lower but increases.
“We could end the aid,” said Maybarduk. “Instead, the United States abandons the fight.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press
