The foreign aid freeze is affecting lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment
The foreign aid freeze is affecting lifesaving HIV/AIDS treatment
A lot of U.S. foreign aid money still appears to be frozen, despite a January waiver from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that should exempt critical lifesaving work. That includes the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, the 2003 HIV and AIDS prevention program from President George W. Bush, which the State Department said has saved an estimated 26 million lives. In theory, the work should continue, but global health organizations, including those with the United Nations, said clinics have already had to close their doors.
Angeli Achrekar is deputy executive director for programs of the Joint U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS, also known as UNAIDS. She discussed the impact of the funding cutoff with “Marketplace Morning Report” host Nova Safo.
The following is an edited transcript of their conversation.
Nova Safo: While the administration has said work can continue on lifesaving activities, it’s not clear to organizations on the ground whether HIV treatment and prevention is lifesaving activity. Is that right?
Angeli Achrekar: In this waiver, comprehensive treatment, testing and prevention of mother-to-child transmission to ensure babies are born HIV-free are covered. These are activities that are covered. The problem is that we need to make sure that that waiver is fully implemented. That’s not currently the state of affairs right now. What’s also equally important is what’s not included in the waiver: prevention services that will absolutely be critical in the HIV response. We need to ensure that new HIV infections are halted.
Safo: Can you explain how aid flows? Because it’s not a question of, necessarily, the government provides the money and then it’s spent. It’s spent and then the government provides the money, right? Is that the crux of the problem here?
Achrekar: Funds flow from the State Department to the headquarters of these various implementing agencies, including [the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], the Department of Defense, and there are others, through cooperative agreements or grants to implementing partners at the country level. They also need to make sure that if they do not have the funds — which in this case, a lot of the funding has stopped — they need to be able to be reassured that they will indeed be reimbursed for those funds.
Safo: Are there groups now doing HIV prevention work, treatment work, that are closing shop?
Achrekar: Many of the implementing partners, many of the groups have indeed closed shop. We’ve also seen community drop-in centers, where people living with HIV and AIDS would normally go to get tested, pick up their lifesaving medicines — they will come to the clinic and the doors will be closed.
Safo: What happens if these disruptions are not resolved or if the aid stops flowing?
Achrekar: What happens is we will see an increase by tenfold of people dying from AIDS. Currently, it’s 630,000 deaths per year. We will see that increase to 6.3 million over the next four to five years. For new infections, currently, there are 1.3 million new infections a year. What we will see over the next four to five years is an exponential jump to 8.7 million new infections. That goal of ending AIDS by 2030 will not be achievable if all of this turns off.
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