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A bipartisan initiative inherited to combat HIV and AIDS in Africa are the collateral damage of President Trump’s directive to stop all U.S. foreign assistance, despite efforts to exclude humanitarian assistance and medication. of rescue of the life of the freezing of three months of financing.
The State Department issued a note that implemented the pause for new and mandatory funding from the State and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) after Trump’s Executive Order requesting a 90 -day break. on a new foreign aid to allow the Government to determine if the programming is aligned with Trump’s Foreign Policy.
The pause in global health financing has done frozen activities in health clinics throughout Africa, which are based on the President’s Emergency Plan for the Society of AIDS (Pepfar), increasing the immediate fears of a Rapid HIV spread throughout the continent.
It is not surprising that a new administration orders a review of existing programs or even staff of the Pepfar program.
“But you know, there is a distinction between reviewing a program, asking questions about a program and completely freezing its life rescue mission,” said Ratevosian. “What is transpired during the last (a few days) is a completely different thing, which is chaos, confusion and potential reversion of one of the greatest hits in America.”
Pepfar of $ 6.5 billion is considered to be one of the most consistent programs in the United States in Africa. He is credited with saving 25 million lives and reducing the AIDS epidemic.
Experts and help organizations look like the alarm to sudden stoppage. Stop working orders took place without warning, sowing immediate chaos and confusion.
Pepfar has more than 270,000 health workers. They have been told to stop serving patients and did not go to work.
The clinics close the doors and moved away. The administration even told them that they stopped dispensing antiretroviral medicines of the HIV they had in stock because Pepfar funds were provided.
Some entities have private funding and other stopgap measures to fall, but for others the situation is more difficult.
“There are programs across the continent that provide treatment and prevention that now do not provide what they usually do,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of Avac, a non -profit international focused on HIV prevention. “There will be people, from this week, who return to the clinic or think they had an appointment to return to the clinic for more medicines and they will not be able to achieve it.”
Although the work note was suddenly published, the State Department appeared on a slightly reverse course, announcing on Tuesday that life treatments and medicines were not subjected to freezing. But the resignation did not provide any specific guidance on what services they described for exemption, deepening the confusion on the ground.
Warren said the resignation seems to allow clinics to resume the dispensation of the HIV drug, but it is not completely clear. Without clarification, he said that clinics continue to retain the medication.
“If you said medication for life, I would tell you that anyone with antiretroviral therapy or anyone who has antiretroviral prevention is to save life. But it is open to interpretation,” said Warren.
“And we still do not have any official notification of Pepfar or USAID or of (the centers of control and prevention of diseases) that the programs are described for this resignation,” he added.
If a person with HIV stops taking the medication, the virus is no longer deleted and can multiply, leading to weakening immune systems, diseases and then extended to others.
The freezing of foreign aid comes at a precarious time for the Pepfar program, as some of its authorizations expire in March. Pepfar has traditionally been re -authorized for five years, but the Omnibus Financing Bill of March 2024 only expanded it for one year.
“Historically, Pepfar has had a great bipartisan support that allowed him to place it out of regular politics,” said Jen Kates, vice president and director of the Global Health and HIV Policies Program at KFF. “That’s no longer.”
Republicans have put the help program In their cruise ships In recent weeks after the State Department notifying Congress last month, he discovered that nurses who worked at the clinics funded by Pepfar in Mozambique had made almost a dozen abortions.
While abortion is legal in Mozambique, North -American Law prevents Pepfar’s aid recipients from providing abortion services.
Representative Brian Mast (R-Fla.), The President of the Chamber’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has requested an investigation.
Mast entered the chair’s position that promised to examine U.S. foreign assistance abroad alongside Trump’s “first” foreign policy.
And Senator Jim Risch (R-Daho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in early month that Pepfar “is certainly in danger.”
However, Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Member and former President of the Senate Senate Sub-Committee funded by the State Department, said that there are still republican colleagues who support the program.
“Some too. I have talked to several of my colleagues who respect and recognize the impact of decades that Pepfar has had to literally save millions of lives in various administrations to President George W. Bush, who has launched him, “he told The Hill.
He said he hoped that “the decisions that were made yesterday, today, to advance, do not prevent the program from continuing to carry out their critical mission to rescue life.”
Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) spoke on Wednesday in support of the program during the confirmation view of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and asked the health and human services candidate if Pepfar supported.
Kennedy said he would “absolutely” support the program and seek to strengthen it.
