Ukraine and seven other countries may be left without HIV medicines due to USAID cuts

HIV treatment may end in Ukraine and seven other countries. Photo: USAID

The decision of the Donald Trump administration to suspend US foreign aid «has significantly disrupted» the supply of HIV treatment drugs to eight countries that may soon be left without these vital medicines.

This was reported by Reuters.

Thus, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Nigeria and Ukraine may exhaust their stocks of HIV treatment drugs in the coming months.

«Failure of HIV programmes could undo 20 years of progress», said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference. He added that this could lead to more than 10 million additional new HIV infections and three million HIV-related deaths.

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The WHO-coordinated Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network, which has more than 700 laboratories worldwide, is also facing the threat of closure, the agency said.

«The United States has a «responsibility to ensure that if it ends direct funding to countries, it does so in an orderly and humane manner that allows them to find alternative sources of funding», said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The funding shortfall could also lead to the closure of 80 per cent of WHO-supported health facilities in Afghanistan, according to a separate WHO statement.

As of 4 March, 167 healthcare facilities have closed due to lack of funding, and without urgent intervention, more than 220 more may close by June.

To recap, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, said that the suspension of funding for USAID programmes had not significantly affected the implementation of projects in the region.

See also the article NikVesti «Due to the suspension of US funding, projects worth millions of dollars are being frozen in Mykolaiv: which ones?».

On 26 January, it became known that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Ukraine had been instructed to suspend all projects and related expenditures.

On 28 January, the US Department of State revised its decision to suspend funding for USAID programmes, introducing a number of exceptions. First and foremost, they apply to humanitarian programmes that provide «essential life-saving medicines, medical services, food, shelter, and living assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs necessary to provide such assistance». At the same time, USAID employees were ordered to destroy classified documents and personal files.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will consider financing energy and infrastructure programmes in Ukraine, which were previously the responsibility of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).