The Trump administration to suspend funding for the United States’ widely acclaimed international HIV/AIDS initiative is generating global uncertainty and jeopardizing countless lives, as stated by healthcare professionals and global health researchers.
Due to President Trump’s freeze on foreign aid announced at the end of last week, the program, referred to as PEPFAR, has been thrown into chaos. Some organizations receiving financial support as part of the initiative which aids in providing HIV treatment to approximately 20 million individuals globally, including over 550,000 children are ceasing the delivery of medications even if they are already available in clinics, experts reported.
Without access to their medications, some patients whose infections are currently under control could experience a resurgence within a matter of days to weeks, physicians warned. They may also become susceptible to other illnesses such as tuberculosis and have an increased likelihood of transmitting the virus to others. Expectant mothers with unmanaged infections could transmit HIV to their infants. Additionally, PEPFAR funds medicines that reduce the risk of contracting HIV.
“The effect is substantial, and the effect is immediate,” remarked Beatriz Grinsztejn, an HIV physician and researcher at Brazil’s Fundação Oswaldo Cruz and president of the International AIDS Society.
Late Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had issued a waiver to at least temporarily allow spending on humanitarian initiatives that provide life-saving medicines, medical services, food, shelter, and basic assistance. It remained unclear whether the waiver would cover all PEPFAR funding or only certain elements, and the waiver indicated that the resumption of services was temporary for the time being.
Hours earlier, the World Health Organization conveyed “deep concern regarding the implications” of the U. S. suspension.
“A funding cessation for HIV programs can place individuals living with HIV at an immediately heightened risk of illness and death and undermine efforts to prevent transmission in communities and nations,” the statement indicated. “Such actions, if prolonged, could result in increases in new infections and fatalities, reversing decades of progress and potentially regressing the world to the 1980s and 1990s when millions succumbed to HIV each year globally, including many in the United States. ”
In Uganda on Tuesday, professionals involved in HIV care and policy were actively exchanging messages, sharing directives they were receiving from the U. S. government and alerting others to the repercussions, stated Henry Zakumumpa, a health services researcher at Makerere University in Kampala, who has analyzed the impact of PEPFAR.
“Anyone who understands the fundamental biology of the HIV virus will assert that this is a catastrophe,” he said, emphasizing that a surge in infections can not only elevate the risk of transmission but also cause the virus to develop resistance to first-line treatments. “Any interruption in treatment, any missed dosage, you are endangering someone’s life. ”