The US government led by Donald Trump has stopped the funding and support for HIV treatment in Nigeria and other developing countries.
The US State Department stopped the disbursement of funds from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a programme for HIV treatment in Africa and developing countries, for at least 90 days.
The action originates from President Trump’s executive order on foreign aid, which he signed on his first day in office.
The order instructed all government agencies managing foreign development assistance programmes to halt the disbursement of funds.
As a result, nearly all US global health funding was halted immediately.
The funding freeze puts millions of people, including Nigerian HIV patients, at immediate risk, with fears of treatment disruption and possible deterioration of the health of people with the virus.
The PEPFAR, established in 2003 under former President George W. Bush, provides antiretroviral therapy (ART) for over 20.6 million people worldwide. Its interventions also help to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and have saved an estimated 26 million lives.
About two million Nigerians currently live with HIV with many of them benefitting from PEPFAR.
As one of the countries with the highest HIV burden globally, Nigeria relies heavily on programmes such as PEPFAR for access to life-saving medications, and healthcare infrastructure support.
Over the years, PEPFAR has contributed over $6 billion to support Nigeria’s national HIV/AIDS response.
The suspension or permanent halt to the programme is thus likely to affect the efforts to control HIV in Nigeria.
