The American cuts of HIV AID will cost millions of lives

Reducing US funding will lead to an additional 2000 new HIV infections every day and over six million additional deaths over the next four years, the UNAIDS chief warned.

This will mark a sharp conversion to the global fight against HIV, which observed the number of deaths from the disease decreased by more than two million in 2004 to 600,000 in 2023, with the last year for which numbers were available.

UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Bayyanima said the US government’s decision to pause foreign assistance – which includes funding for HIV programs – already has pernicious consequences.

She called on the US to immediately turn the cuts, warning that women and girls were hit particularly.

US President Donald Trump has announced the pause for foreign aid for the initial 90 days on his first day of service in January as part of a government spending review. The bigger part of the US Agency’s International Development Agency (USAID) programs have been terminated.

Many US -funded US Treatment and Prevention Programs have received stop labor orders, which led to clinics clinics for mother and babies in Africa and a severe life shortage, saving antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.

By -Janyima said she was afraid of returning to the 90s, when HIV drugs were hardly available in the more overwhelming countries, and infections and death rose.

The United States has been the largest funding treatment and prevention of HIV for years, and the Byanima d -Jan thanks Washington for its generosity and humanity.

She added that it was “reasonable for the US” to want to reduce their funding – over time, “but said” the sudden withdrawal of rescue support (E) has a detrimental effect. “

There is no sign that Washington is listening to calls to change the course.

Traditional aid donors in Europe also plan for funding cuts, and UNAIDS – the UN Joint Agency, which is fighting HIV – has not had an indication that other countries can intervene to fill the precipice left by the United States.

Speaking to Geneva on Monday, the Byanyima described the case of Juliana, a young woman in Kenya living with HIV. It works for a US -funded program that supported new mothers to access treatment to ensure that their babies are not developing the disease.

After the discontinuation program, the Byanyima said that Juliana is not unemployed, but since she is still breastfeeding her youngest child, she is also afraid to lose the necessary treatment.

Previously, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared eight countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Lesoto, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Haiti and Ukraine – HIV drugs may soon leak after a US funding break.

The WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Gebreys has warned that interruption of HIV programs “can cancel the 20 -year progress.”

In February, the leading lobbying group for AIDS in South Africa, the Treatment Treatment Campaign (TAC), warned that the country could see their return when patients with HIV were struggling to have access to the necessary services for their treatment.

“We can’t afford to die. We can’t afford to return to those years we suffered from access to services, especially for people living with HIV treatment,” said TAC Sibongile Tshabalala chairman.

Mrs. Byanyima also offered a deal for the Trump administration, offering an opportunity to launch a new ARV market developed by the US for millions of people.

Lenacapavir, made by American company Gilead, is given by injection every six months, with UNAIDS believes that 10 million people can benefit from it.

The profits and jobs arising from such a transaction would be extremely useful to the United States, added by -Janiima.

UNAIDS is one of a number of UN agencies facing funding cuts.

The UN Refugee Agency suggested that it may need to lose 6,000 jobs, while UNICEF warned that progress to reduce infant mortality was threatened and the World Food Program had to reduce rations in starvation regions.