American cuts using HIV will cost millions of lives

Imogen Foulkes

BBC correspondent Geneva

AFP

US funding discounts will lead 2,000 new additional HIV infections every day and more than six million additional deaths over the next four years, warned the Uusida chief.

It would mark a striking reversal in the global fight against HIV, which saw the number of deaths by the disease decrease by more than two million in 2004 to 600,000 in 2023, the most recent year for which figures are available.

ONUSIDAS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said that the US government's decision to take a break abroad – which included funding for HIV programs – already had devastating consequences.

She called on the United States to reverse the cuts immediately, warning women and girls were particularly affected.

US President Donald Trump announced the break on foreign aid for first 90 days, on his first day of mandate in January as part of a public spending exam. The majority of the American Agency for International Development (USAID) programs have since been terminated.

Many HIV treatment and prevention programs financed by the United States have received work vouchers, which has led to the closure of mother and baby clinics in Africa, and severe shortages of antiretroviral drugs (ARV) that save lives (ARV).

Byanyima said that she feared a return in the 1990s, when HIV drugs were barely available in poor countries, and infections and deaths have skyrocketed.

The United States has been the largest HIV treatment and prevention fund for years, and Ms. Byanima thanked Washington for its generosity and humanity.

She added that it was “reasonable” for the United States “to want to reduce its funding – over time”, but said the “sudden withdrawal of rescue support [was] have a devastating impact “.

There is no sign that Washington listens to calls to change course.

The donors of traditional aid in Europe also provide for funding reductions, and UNAIDS – the joint United Nations agency that fights HIV – has not indicated that other countries could intervene to fill the gap left by the United States.

Speaking on Monday in Geneva, Ms. Byanyima described the case of Juliana, a young woman from Kenya living with HIV. She worked for a program funded by the United States which supported new mothers to access treatment to ensure that their babies have not developed the disease.

With the suspended program, Ms. Byanyima said Juliana was not only unemployed, but, because she still was breastfeeding her youngest child, she also feared losing the treatment she needed.

Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that eight countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Haiti and Ukraine – could soon be lacking in HIV drugs after the American financing break.

WHO The chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the disruption of HIV programs “could cancel 20 years of progress”.

In February, the first AIDS lobby group in South Africa, the treatment campaign of treatment (TAC), warned that the country could see a return at a time when HIV patients had trouble accessing the services necessary for their treatment.

“We cannot afford to die, we cannot afford to return to these years when we suffered from access to services, especially for people living with the treatment of HIV,” said TAC president Tshabalala.

Byanyima also offered an agreement to the Trump administration, offering the possibility of marketing a new ARV developed in the United States to millions of people.

Lenacapavir, manufactured by the American company Gilead, is given by injection every six months, the UNUs thinking that 10 million people could benefit from it.

The profits and jobs resulting from such an agreement would be extremely beneficial for the United States, added Ms. Byanyima.

Unonida is one of the many United Nations agencies faced with financing discounts.

The United Nations Refugees Agency suggested that it may have to lose 6,000 jobs, while UNICEF warned that progress to reduce infant mortality is threatened, and the global food program has had to reduce rations in the regions of famine.

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