The Trump administration instructed all international health organizations to end the use of H.I.V. medications purchased with U.S. aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and disbursed to local clinics.
Later, at 6 p.m. Eastern, they shut down all data systems for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — the global HIV treatment and management program started by George W. Bush.
Within hours, patients worldwide are turned away from clinics, and appointments are cancelled. U.S. health officials are instructed not to communicate with or answer any questions from their international counterparts and our allies’ national health agencies.
“The partners we collaborate with are in shock, and they do not know what to do because their lifesaving mission and commitment has been breached,” said Asia Russell, executive director of the advocacy group Health Gap.
The New York Times
PEPFAR is credited with saving more than 25 million lives worldwide, and over 100,000 people may die each year without the program. That number is based on a study of South Africa that found up to 600,000 would die in the next decade if PEPFAR didn’t exist. South Africa relies on PEPFAR for only 20 percent of its H.I.V. budget, while other countries are almost entirely dependent on the program.
In its reporting, the New York Times warns that “Without treatment, virus levels in people with H.I.V. will quickly spike, hobbling the immune systems of the infected people and increasing the odds that they will spread the virus to others [which] may also lead to the emergence of resistant strains that can spread across the world.”
For those following Project 2025, this move is not in the authoritarian agenda. The Mandate for Leadership expressly states that PEPFAR is a success and credits Trump’s first four years with making it so.
