Urgent action needed to safeguard HIV response from Trump administration freeze

Organisations from across the Frontline AIDS partnership receiving US government funds have been issued with abrupt ‘stop work’ orders and told to cease operations immediately. Frontline AIDS Executive Director John Plastow calls for an historic effort to avert the catastrophic threat facing people living with and affected by HIV in many parts of the world.
Frontline AIDS strongly condemns the Trump administration’s decision to issue stop work orders shutting down lifesaving HIV programmes supported by the U.S. government, pending a 90-day review which will determine the future of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
The shutdown of PEPFAR programmes is both a human catastrophe and a global health crisis, bringing a very real threat that we will see the global AIDS pandemic resurgingJohn Plastow, Executive Director, Frontline AIDS
Over 20 million people depend on the PEPFAR for antiretroviral medicine (ARVs) that they need to keep their immune systems healthy.
“We cannot overstate the threat that President Trump’s actions pose for people living with and affected by HIV,” warned Frontline AIDS Executive Director John Plastow. “Nothing short of an historic effort can safeguard the AIDS response in the face of this unprecedented emergency.”
Frontline AIDS works with more than 60 civil society and community partners spanning 100 countries, and around 20 of these organisations receive US funding.
One of our partners in Southern Africa, which receives around 40% of its funding from the US government, has been ordered to suspend all US-funded activities. It estimates that as a result of this three-month freeze, 30,000 adolescent girls and young women, as well as 26,000 orphans and vulnerable children – approximately 7,000 of whom are living with HIV – will not receive HIV services.
“It will lead to a spike in HIV. People are going to die, definitely, with services stopped,” said the organisation’s Executive Director, who asked to remain anonymous due to concerns around reprisals and the impact this might have on their work in the future.
At least 13 organisations in South Africa are facing similar suspensions. The impact in that country alone will be devastating.
Frontline AIDS has joined calls for the US government to issue a waiver protecting life-saving work funded by PEPFAR from the stop work orders, and welcomes news that the funding freeze has now been lifted for HIV medications. However, we remain deeply concerned about HIV prevention, testing and other essentials and about the heightened risks facing community and civil society organisations, which are already underfunded, despite being central to an effective HIV response.
“People’s lives are at stake,” says Dr Pasquine Ogunsanya, Executive Director of Alive Medical Services (AMS), a Frontline AIDS’ partner which reaches more than 200,000 people in Uganda with HIV and health services. Around 40% of AMS’ work is supported by US funding which has now been frozen. “Humanitarian work like medical services, which is lifesaving, should be waived so that work can resume immediately.”
Frontline AIDS is urging governments and international donors to step in with interim funding that can sustain programmes in crisis, and to make plans for filling a potentially huge funding gap in the longer term. Data from Amfar, the Foundation for AIDS Research, suggest that for each day that the orders remain in place, 222,333 people will lose their access to HIV treatment, including 7455 children, while a 90-day stop would mean 135,987 babies acquiring HIV infection.
“The shutdown of PEPFAR programmes is both a human catastrophe and a global health crisis, bringing a very real threat that we will see the global AIDS pandemic resurging,” added John Plastow. “President Trump has promised Americans prosperity, safety and security, but the extreme effects of his actions on efforts to end AIDS will make the world less safe for us all.”
Tags
Alive Medical Services (AMS)President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)UgandaUS aid