Experts warn of a threat to global health as Trump freezes USAID

Global health experts express their horror and concern about dismantling the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which allows tens of billions of dollars every year.

The administration of President Donald Trump has announced huge abbreviations of the agency’s workforce and the immediate suspension of almost all his assistance programs.

The US Government has announced a 90-day freezing funding for assistance projects while it is undertaking a “review” to ensure that they are aligned with President Trump’s priorities.

Trump is a long -term critic of overseas expenditure and said he should be brought into line with his America First strategy.

In particular, the administration is aimed at USAID, stating that the agency’s costs are completely inexplicable and have separated certain projects as examples of how it is, according to him, the agency, which loses the taxpayer money.

On the other hand, health experts warn of the spread of the disease, as well as to slow down the development of vaccines and new treatments as a result of redundancies.

In addition to conducting many health programs directly, USAID funds other work organizations on its behalf, and freezing in funding has caused confusion among these groups.

Financing freezing editions have been issued for some humanitarian programs, but the message has already caused a widespread interruption of services.

Dr. Wingfield, Tuberculosis Expert (Tuberculosis) and social medicine at the UK British School of Tropical Medicine in the UK, said it was difficult to undermine the impact of the USAID dismissal.

“People do not appreciate the extent and range of USAID. It is directed to malnutrition, hygiene, toilets, access to clean water, which all have a huge impact on tuberculots and diarrhea.

“Diseases do not respect the boundaries – this is even more the case when we have climate change and mass movement of people. Infectious diseases will spread.”

Dr. Wingfield says tuberculosis kills 1.3 million people a year and makes another 10 million people.

But four of 10 people never receive any care and therefore can convey the disease, he said.

“Whether it is a research project or a clinic, then we risk a larger transmission.

“People will die directly for redundancies in US funding.”

Not only tuberculosis clinics are at risk, but also those who provide care for people living with HIV.

Much of this work is done by non -governmental organizations, NGOs, which provide vital antiretroviral drugs that can suppress the amount of HIV in the blood to undetectable levels, which helps prevent sexual transmission to other people.

DR Wingfield says that if the treatment is disturbed, there can be serious problems.

“People with controlled HIV, if they are missed, the virus in their blood increases and there is a risk of transmitting on.

“There is a risk of canceling all the progress so far.”

Frontline Aids is an organization based in the UK and South Africa, which works with 60 partners in 100 countries.

More than 20 of their partners have said they have been affected by the freezing of foreign assistance in the United States.

Communication over freezing and subsequent refusal caused “deep confusion”, the organization told the BBC.

Many partners had to stop the care of HIV, the treatment and prevention of vulnerable children and adults and fire the staff, the announcement said.

“The majority stays in the limbs and this has a catastrophic impact on communities and organizations,” says John Plastow, CEO of Frontline Aids.

He announced that an organization in Uganda said it would expire from its HIV testing kits, tuberculosis medicines and condoms for a month, which is fundamentally funded by the USAID President’s emergency plan for AIDS Aid Program.

A large number of HIV services have stopped in South Africa. Some provide subsequent care and urgent contraception for women and girls who have been raped.

Prof. Peter Taylor, Director of International Development Studies at the University of Sussex, said one of the biggest freezing problems was an erosion of confidence.

“Stopping things suddenly undermines people’s trust. People are confused and angry,” he said.

“Undercutting basic trust is the real price and this is increasing in many situations around the world.

“This is so harmful to the US global reputation.”

USAID also provides funding for decisive international clinical drug trials that Prof. Thomas Jackie, the leader of the MPC Biostatics Department at the University of Cambridge, may now be vulnerable.

“Unfortunately, there are quite a number of tests that are immediately affected by the freezing of USAID – as in terms of testing, but also the tests that are in creation and are planned to start soon.”

He said he was “convinced” that freezing funding in the United States “would impact detrimental to the development of treatment” to the extent that exciting new treatments slow down for years or even discarded.

“It is clear that the impact in areas such as malaria and HIV will be particularly high, as a remarkable part of the research in these areas is funded along this route,” said Prof. Jackie.

Prof. Rosa Friedman, Professor of International Law, Conflict and Global Development at University Readings, said USAID provides up to 40% of worldwide developmental aid that covers health, as well as the education and development of economic prosperity.

But health programs are where the impact of freezing funding – if it is prolonged or permanent – it will probably be felt most in the coming months, she warns.

“This will partly be due to the prevention of additional vaccines that are distributed or funded by USAID.

“This may mean that the preventive diseases that we believe were containing or even eradicated can occur or worsen, such as cholera and malaria.”

Prof. Friedman said this could lead to an increase in health problems around the world.

“Given the globalized and interdependent nature of our planet, the anxiety will be that these diseases can spread rapidly and far away.”