Donald Trump’s decision to freeze U.S. aid to foreign countries has “significantly disrupted” the supply of HIV medications in eight countries, putting them at risk of running out in the coming months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated that “disruptions to HIV programs” could reverse 20 years of progress, potentially leading to over 10 million new HIV cases and more than 3 million deaths from the disease in Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, and Ukraine.
Donald Trump’s decision to suspend aid has disrupted efforts to tackle other diseases, such as polio, malaria, and tuberculosis.
In 2023, these countries were home to 11% of the global population living with HIV (4,165 out of 39.9 million), and accounted for 9% of new infections (117,900 out of 1.3 million). They also recorded more than 10% of HIV-related deaths (65,200 out of 630,000), according to official WHO data.
Six of these eight countries are in Africa, the most heavily affected region, where two-thirds of the global population living with HIV (26 million) resided in 2023, and where 50% of new HIV infections occurred that year.
What is fyi.news?
