By John Michael Ojo
The United Nations (UN), has warned that more than six million people could die if the United State ends it’s foreign aid programs.
This was made known by UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Christine Stegling said during a UN briefing in Geneva on Friday.
According to her, “There is still a lot of confusion… about how the waiver will be implemented, and we’re seeing a lot of disruption of the delivery of treatment services.”
Regarding the freeze’s impact, Stegling said 20 million of the world’s 30 million HIV-positive people rely on US aid for treatment.
Noting that the HIV global response is heavily dependent on funds from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as it finances 70% of the overall AIDS response.
“We estimate that if PEPFAR wasn’t reauthorized between 2025 and 2029 and other resources were not found for the HIV response, there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths.
“That’s 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in the future,” she warned.
With the funding freeze, the biggest interruption will be on community health systems, she said, giving the example of Ethiopia, where UNAIDS had 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by US assistance.
“All of these in all regions of Ethiopia have been terminated,” she added.
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