Eight countries could run out of HIV treatments due to USAID cuts, WHO says

By Mariam Sunny and Christy Santhosh

(Reuters) -The Trump administration's determination to intermission U.S. overseas assistance has "substantially disrupted" proviso of HIV treatments successful 8 countries, which could soon tally retired of these life-saving medicines, the World Health Organization said connected Monday.

The planetary wellness bureau said that Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Ukraine could exhaust their proviso of HIV treatments successful the coming months.

"The disruptions to HIV programs could undo 20 years of progress," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said astatine a property conference. He added that this could pb to implicit 10 cardinal further HIV cases and 3 cardinal HIV-related deaths.

Efforts to tackle HIV, polio, malaria and tuberculosis person been impacted by the U.S. overseas assistance intermission implemented by President Donald Trump soon aft helium took bureau successful January.

The WHO-coordinated Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network, with implicit 700 sites worldwide, besides faces imminent shutdown, the bureau said. This comes astatine a clip erstwhile measles is making a comeback successful the United States.

The United States has a "responsibility to guarantee that if it withdraws nonstop backing for countries, it's done successful an orderly and humane mode that allows them to find alternate sources of funding," Ghebreyesus said connected Monday.

Funding shortages could besides unit 80% of WHO-supported indispensable wellness attraction services successful Afghanistan to close, the bureau said successful a abstracted statement.

As of March 4, 167 wellness facilities had unopen down owed to backing shortages, and without urgent intervention, implicit 220 much facilities could adjacent by June.

The United States' plans to exit the WHO person besides forced the UN agency, which typically receives astir a 5th of its wide yearly backing from the U.S., to frost hiring and initiate fund cuts.

The WHO said connected Monday that it plans to chopped its backing people for exigency operations to $872 cardinal from $1.2 cardinal successful the 2026-2027 fund period.

(Reporting by Mariam Sunny and Christy Santhosh successful Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)