Over 45,000 new HIV infections recorded since US aid cut

About 45,675 new HIV infections have been recorded since January 21 after the United States withdrew international support for global health challenges.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, the figures would have been limited to 42,892 if the US support continued.

The US government, on February 1st, authorised a temporary halt to some life-saving HIV services funded by PEPFAR.

If PEPFAR were permanently halted, UNAIDS estimates that there would be an estimated additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths, 3.4 million AIDS orphans, 350,000 new HIV infections among children, and an additional 8.7 million adult new infections by 2029 – making ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 impossible.

Christine Stegling, deputy executive director of policy, UNAIDS said the biggest impact will be on community health services, which have been at the heart of the fight against HIV and AIDS.

“For example, In Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by US assistance and all of these in all regions of Ethiopia have been terminated. 10,000 data, clerks very important in Ethopia so that we continue monitoring and ensuring that people are on treatment,” she said.

Despite the waiver issued for HIV/AIDS programmes, the UN agency to combat AIDS (UNAIDS) on Friday said the pause in foreign assistance has created confusion in community HIV prevention work.

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The waiver allows the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance” including HIV treatment.

This means 20 million people living with HIV who depend on US aid for their treatment can continue to receive medication.

“That’s 20 million out of the 30 million people living with HIV in the world,” said Stegling.

The US finances 70 percent of the overall AIDS response and directly supports more than 20 million people living with HIV.

Since its creation in 2003, PEPFAR has saved more than 26 million lives by investing in critical HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support programs in 55 countries, according to UNAIDS.

Nevertheless, “there is a lot of confusion on the ground, especially at the community level on how the waiver will be implemented”, Stegling noted, pointing to disruption of treatment services.

Transport services and community health workers are still impacted by the US funding pause, according to UNAIDS.

The agency highlighted that the pause in US assistance to community programmes would lead to the closure of many drop-in health centres and the termination of outreach workers’ contracts, effectively depriving vulnerable groups of support.

Thousands of individuals – women, young girls, and priority populations at higher risk of sexually transmitted infections – will no longer be able to access critical services, such as condom distribution, HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, screenings for tuberculosis or support to address gender-based violence.

UNAIDS is most concerned about the long-term impact of the US funding freeze on the prevention of new HIV infections as most services are community-based. At the same time, national governments tend to focus on keeping people on treatment, rather than preventing new infections.

UNAIDS says it will continue efforts to ensure that during the 90-day pause, all people affected by HIV continue to access life-saving services.