A new study illustrates in stark detail the devastating impact of the Trump administration’s foreign aid freeze. Now more than 500,000 children are at risk of dying to AIDS-related causes if funding for AIDS relief is not restored in full.
The report comes from the peer-reviewed science journal The Lancet. Given the ongoing disruptions to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), experts used available data on transmission rates in sub-Saharan Africa to estimate the impact on people living with HIV or communities at high risk of contracting HIV.
The study’s authors warn that 500,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa could die by 2030 if funding is not restored. An additional 1 million children could become infected, while an estimated 2.8 million children are in danger of becoming orphaned in the next five years.
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PEPFAR was established under the Bush administration in 2003 to treat and prevent HIV around the world. The program is credited with saving over 26 million lives, protecting nearly 8 million newborns from contracting HIV and supporting 20 million people (mostly in sub-Saharan Africa) living with HIV.
At the beginning of Trump’s term, the president issued a 90-day pause on all forms of foreign aid. In February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver to allow some aid under PEPFAR to continue. However, the waiver notably excludes LGBTQ+ people and sex workers from receiving PrEP at PEPFAR clinics.
“The future of PEPFAR programmes hang in the balance,” said the study’s co-lead author, Prof Lucie Cluver of the University of Oxford. “Losing stable, long-term support for PEPFAR programmes sets global progress to end HIV/AIDS back to the dark ages of the epidemic, especially for children and adolescents.
“A sudden withdrawal of PEPFAR programmes, especially in the absence of a long term strategy to replace them, could lead to a resurgence of HIV infections and preventable deaths, and a dramatic rise in the number of children orphaned by AIDS in the coming years – a setback that could erode two decades of progress.”
The study’s co-author Susan Hillis of Imperial College warned that the cessation of PEPFAR’s sex education programs will also devastate the population. “By eliminating many programmes PEPFAR supports for children beyond HIV treatment and prevention, such as programmes that prevent sexual violence and support general child health and wellbeing, many of the children and adolescents who currently benefit from PEPFAR programmes will slip through the cracks — increasing their chances of acquiring HIV or leading to further transmission, ultimately resulting in many preventable HIV infections and deaths,” Hillis said.
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