The World Health Organisation said Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho and five other countries are running out of HIV drugs following President Donald Trump’s pause on foreign aid.
In Nigeria, nearly two million people are living with HIV, with many relying on receiving aid-funded medicines. An estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, which is more than two-thirds of the global total 38 million people living with the disease.
“Disruptions to HIV programmes could undo 20 years of progress,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned.
“The US administration has been extremely generous over many years. And of course, it’s within its rights to decide what it supports and to what extent.
“But the US also has a responsibility to ensure that if it withdraws direct funding for countries, it’s done in an orderly and humane way that allows them to find alternative sources of funding.”
Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Mali – as well as Haiti and Ukraine – would run out of live-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) medicines in the coming months, Dr Tedros said at a press conference on Monday.
Trump’s executive order paused foreign aid support for an initial duration of 90 days in line with his “America First” foreign policy.
It has affected health programmes around the world, leaving shipments of critical medical supplies, including HIV drugs, greatly hampered.
The majority of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes have since been terminated.
Despite a waiver issued in February for the US’s ground-breaking HIV programme, its work has severely impacted.
Known as the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), it relies on logistical support from USAID and other organisations hit by the turmoil.
It has led to the “immediate stop to services for HIV treatment, testing and prevention in more than 50 countries.
“We ask the US to reconsider its support for global health, which not only saves lives around the world, it also makes the US safer by preventing outbreaks from spreading internationally,” Dr Tedros said. BBC
