The World Health Organisation (WHO) has voiced great worry about the financing freeze for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries.
US President Donald Trump recently ordered a funding suspension for HIV treatment in underdeveloped nations as part of an executive order on foreign aid.
As a result, the US State Department has halted the distribution of monies from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
PEPFAR treats more than 20 million people with HIV in Nigeria and around the world, including 566,000 children under the age of 15.
According to the WHO, 39.9 million individuals worldwide would be living with HIV by the end of 2023.
The organisation said these programmes provide access to life-saving HIV therapy to more than 30 million people worldwide.
”A funding halt for HIV programmes can put people living with HIV at immediate increased risk of illness and death and undermine efforts to prevent transmission in communities and countries,” the statement reads.
”Such measures, if prolonged, could lead to rises in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally, including many in the United States of America.
“For the global community, this could result in significant setbacks to progress in partnerships and investments in scientific advances that have been the cornerstone of good public health programming, including innovative diagnostics, affordable medicines, and community delivery models of HIV care.”
The WHO urged the US government to “enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment and care”.