by TINTSWALO BALOYI
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE Southern African bloc is bearing the brunt on the termination of United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded health programmes.
The US President Donald Trump on February 26 issued around 5 200 termination letters to programmes worldwide funded by the agency and 4 100 funded by the Department of State and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Many provided essential and lifesaving health care services for malaria, Ebola, malnutrition, sexual and reproductive health (SRH), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and tuberculosis (TB), and vaccination among other critical health issues.
“The termination of this funding threatens to undo years of incredible progress against HIV and TB, with immediate and long-term consequences,” lamented Dr Esther Casas, senior HIV/TB advisor, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Southern Africa Medical Unit (SAMU), Claire Waterhouse, head of MSF’s Operations Support Unit and regional advocacy coordinator.
The officials said MSF was deeply saddened and angered by the casual inhumanity of these decisions, which will inevitably lead to deaths, suffering, exclusion from health care, and the resurgence of preventable diseases.
“We are seeing the fear in the eyes of our partners previously in USAID/PEPFAR-funded community organizations and NGOs as they fight for the survival of their programs and their patients.”
MSF mentioned some projects in Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Zimbabwe that had been affected.
In Khayelitsha, South Africa, where MSF supported HIV and TB programmes for over 20 years, contracts of data capturers, community health workers, counselors, nurses, and doctors have been interrupted, according to its long-standing partner, the Treatment Action Campaign.
In Zimbabwe, reports from MSF teams indicate that while some PEPFAR-funded organizations have managed to sustain HIV services, the provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) remains limited.
Currently, PrEP is only available to existing clients within these programs, with no new initiations being conducted.
MSF teams in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) report they have not received antiretroviral (ARV) supplies at the CHK Hospital in Kinshasa since January 20, leaving over 2 000 HIV/TB patients at risk of developing drug resistance, advanced HIV and dying, if supplies are not resumed immediately.
Around 8 200 patients relying on antiretroviral treatment (ART) community-based distribution points (PODIs) risk losing access to their treatment.
“These are just a few examples of severe disruptions from countries where we work,” Casas and Waterhouse stated jointly.
– CAJ News