Mthuli Ncube, the Finance Minister of Zimbabwe, has raised concern over the USA’s announcement that they will leave the World Health Organisation.
Leaving the international body was one of the immediate directives new US President Donald Trump issued within his first few hours of taking office.
Ncube says the US decision will have a huge effect on HIV/AIDS prevention programs in African nations, including Zimbabwe.
Speaking to news agency Reuters at the World Economic Forum (WEF) the minister said “Any country with an HIV/AIDS challenge will be impacted.”
Zimbabwe receives over $200 million annually from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a program that President Trump has immediately halted.
The International AIDS Society (IAS) has also sounded the alarm over the US decision.
“This is a matter of life or death,” IAS President Beatriz Grinsztejn said. “PEPFAR provides lifesaving antiretrovirals for more than 20 million people – and stopping its funding essentially stops their HIV treatment. If that happens, people are going to die and HIV will resurge.”
The program was first established under President Geoerge W Bush in 2003 and has an annual budget of USD$6.5 billion. It is estimated that the program has saved 26 million people’s lives since its inception.
Under President Trump’s order all programs are frozen for the next 90 days, meaning all work funded via PEPFAR could also come to a halt as health organisatons around the globe face a funding gap that will make it difficult to pay workers on the ground.
Speaking to NPR in the USA, Asia Russell, Executive Director of HIV access organisation Health Gap, shared that the immediacy of the order had caught many organisations by surprise.
“”Many people assumed the 90-day freeze would apply to forward looking funding only,” she said, noting that the way the Trump Administration has approached the issue as a “catastrophic” turn of events.
“He is doing irreparable harm to the global AIDS response.” Russell commented.
