{"id":21175,"date":"2025-01-30T09:03:19","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21175"},"modified":"2025-01-30T10:28:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T10:28:49","slug":"pause-on-u-s-funding-spreads-fear-of-h-i-v-spike-across-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21175","title":{"rendered":"Pause on U.S. Funding Spreads Fear of H.I.V. Spike Across Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Patients and health care advocates said the abrupt decision to halt U.S. funding for a lifesaving H.I.V. program led to widespread confusion. The backtracking didn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

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As he does every three months, Sibusiso traveled on Wednesday morning to a clinic in the capital of Eswatini, a tiny southern African nation, to get a refill of the H.I.V. medication he needs to save his life. When he arrived, the door was locked and about 20 other patients stood outside, baffled that the clinic was closed.<\/p>\n

Sibusiso, 39 and unemployed, had heard rumors that President Trump was pulling funding for the program that supported his treatment. Now, though, he learned the reality: The Trump administration had ordered a halt to the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, one of America\u2019s most consequential aid programs in Africa.<\/p>\n

The abrupt pause of a $6.5 billion program established by former President George W. Bush and credited with saving the lives of tens of millions people, sent patients, clinicians and public health activists across Africa into a panic. Many feared a return to some of the darkest days on the continent, when H.I.V. spread rapidly and a diagnosis was akin to a death sentence.<\/p>\n

As Sibusiso stood outside the clinic, he feared he could be next. He had taken the last of his antiretroviral medication that morning. And even though the Trump administration had backtracked<\/a>, suddenly announcing on Tuesday that lifesaving medications and treatments could continue to be distributed, the clinic remained shuttered in the confusion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sibusiso, standing outside, had no idea where or when he could get more medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m now thinking of dying,\u201d said Sibusiso, who requested that only his first name be used to protect his privacy. \u201cWhat am I going to do without this treatment?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has said that foreign assistance programs will be paused for three months as it reviews how money is being spent. If the administration decides to end PEPFAR, it could lead to 600,000 deaths over the next decade in South Africa alone, where the program has its largest number of beneficiaries, according to a study.<\/p>\n

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Patients and health care advocates said the abrupt decision to halt U.S. funding for a lifesaving H.I.V. program led to widespread confusion. The backtracking didn\u2019t help.As he does every three months, Sibusiso traveled on Wednesday morning to a clinic in the capital of Eswatini, a tiny southern African nation, to get a refill of the H.I.V. medication he needs to save his life. When he arrived, the door was locked and about 20 other patients stood outside, baffled that the clinic was closed.Sibusiso, 39 and unemployed, had heard rumors that President Trump was pulling funding for the program that supported his treatment. Now, though, he learned the reality: The Trump administration had ordered a halt to the President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, one of America\u2019s most consequential aid programs in Africa.The abrupt pause of a $6.5 billion program established by former President George W. Bush and credited with saving the lives of tens of millions people, sent patients, clinicians and public health activists across Africa into a panic. Many feared a return to some of the darkest days on the continent, when H.I.V. spread rapidly and a diagnosis was akin to a death sentence.As Sibusiso stood outside the clinic, he feared he could be next. He had taken the last of his antiretroviral medication that morning. And even though the Trump administration had backtracked, suddenly announcing on Tuesday that lifesaving medications and treatments could continue to be distributed, the clinic remained shuttered in the confusion.Sibusiso, standing outside, had no idea where or when he could get more medicine.\u201cI\u2019m now thinking of dying,\u201d said Sibusiso, who requested that only his first name be used to protect his privacy. \u201cWhat am I going to do without this treatment?\u201dThe Trump administration has said that foreign assistance programs will be paused for three months as it reviews how money is being spent. If the administration decides to end PEPFAR, it could lead to 600,000 deaths over the next decade in South Africa alone, where the program has its largest number of beneficiaries, according to a study.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21177,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21178,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21175\/revisions\/21178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}