Trump's aid cuts could lead to 6 million AIDS deaths: UNAIDS
The withdrawal of funding by the United States for international aid programs could result in the deaths of more than 6 million people from HIV and AIDS in the coming years, warns the UN agency UNAIDS.
The UN agency UNAIDS warns that the decision by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw funding for international aid programs could have catastrophic consequences. In the next four years, over six million people could die from HIV and AIDS.
Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, expressed concern about the future funding of HIV and AIDS programs. Although these programs were excluded from the funding freeze, there are many concerns regarding their continued functioning.
There is a lot of confusion especially on the community level, how the waiver will be implemented. We're seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services - emphasized Stegling, quoted by Reuters.
Decisions by Trump's administration
On his first day in office, Donald Trump signed an order suspending all aid programs for 90 days, explaining it as a need to align spending with the "America First" policy. Following protests from humanitarian organizations, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio exempted the most urgent programs from the order, including PEPFAR, which deals with the distribution of AIDS drugs.
Stegling noted that if PEPFAR funding is not re-approved for 2025-2029, the number of AIDS-related deaths could increase by 400%, resulting in the deaths of 6.3 million people. Clinics that provide treatment for AIDS patients are "entirely dependent" on assistance from Washington.
UNAIDS is a project aimed at effectively combating AIDS and HIV. UNAIDS operates in more than 80 countries. As stated on the UNAIDS website, it gathers "data collection on HIV epidemiology, programme coverage and finance and publishes the most authoritative and up-to-date information on the HIV epidemic."
