For residents of remote South African villages, obtaining access to medicine is a challenge. HIV patients like 19 -year -old Nozuko Mazola should travel for more than an hour to get significant antiretroviral drugs.But this was not always the case.“We used to get drugs to our homes, but since Donald Trump announced that he was cutting aid, drugs have stopped coming. I worry that the service will be completely canceled,” Majola told DW.He is one of the estimated 8 million people living with HIV in South Africa. One of the highest rates of HIV in the world is one of the world. Another HIV patient, Nozuko Nagaveni, who has been taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for decades, is now afraid of his life.“When I heard that America had canceled its assistance, I thought I was dying,” she said. “I asked myself: ‘Will I get medicine next month? I have medicine for this month, but what comes later?” , The US has donated to the health sector of South Africa for several decades, mainly to combat HIV/AIDS. In 2023, the US gave the country $ 400 million (€ 352 million) in funding.American funding cuts in South Africa’s HIV/AIDS programs may cause more than 500,000 deaths in the next decade, Linda-Gales, head of Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, told reporters in February. After assuming office on 20 January, President Trump issued an executive order, which stopped foreign aid for 90 days. The review ended with the decision to eliminate USAID as an independent agency. The administration reduced 90% of foreign contracts and grants funded by the US aid agency.Such funding cuts are a blow to many African countries. Sub-Sahara Africa is the second largest recipient of USAID funding worldwide, receiving $ 12.7 billion (€ 11.2 billion) in 2024. According to the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), more than 4 million additional people can now die of healing diseases in Africa.
Destruction
Pan-African NGO Emeraf Health Africa, who trains experts and provides medical care to about 20 million people in a year, mainly lost 20% of their budget due to cuts in the US. In Ethiopia, educational programs for thousands of youth have been canceled, while according to Amref, 500,000 tuberculosis screenings cannot be performed in Tanzania.“We are looking at large -scale gaps in all countries. In all areas where humanitarian assistance is needed, Lara Dovifat said, the head of advocacy in doctors bidout borders (Medicine Sans Frontieres, MSF). In South Sudan, MSF is struggling to respond to a cholera’s outbreak, as the aid-funded clinics are forced to shut down due to lack of assistance workers.“The results are frightening,” Dovifat told DW of Cuts.Dowifat also points to the example of Somalia: “The number of malnourished children is increasing because so many nutrition centers have to be closed.”Meanwhile, in Sudan, a water supply system that operates with USAID funding was closed overnight.
Dissemination of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV
The money deduction related to the fight against HIV/AIDS is particularly dramatic. The United States is no longer funding the UNEDs, the United Nations HIV/AIDS funding program, which goes to communities around the world. Some have given America the biggest blow to global efforts to fight the disease.In Kenya, funding has come down to $ 846 million for 2025. Nigeria is also highly dependent on USAID funding. Although the government was capable of releasing about $ 3.2 million in US assistance for HIV drugs, failures in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are fixed without American support.To finance the fight against these three infectious diseases, the international community established a global fund in Geneva in 2002. Michael Bayaran, head of the technical advice and partnership department of global funds, is particularly concerned about cuts in prevention of malaria prevention programs. “If you do not get malaria under control, it is very likely to have a significant resurrection and deaths,” Burn told DW. According to the World Health Organization, Malaria kills 600,000 people every year, most of them in Africa under 5 years of age.
We are losing 10 to 20 years of progress’
MSF’s dovifat also fears that cut may undo the progress made in the area of prevention of the disease.“We are losing 10 to 20 years of progress in the treatment of HIV/AIDS. Many programs have been stopped, including programs for tuberculosis and outbreak control,” she said. The US Gavi, Vaccine Alliance, is cutting funds for a global health partnership that provides vaccines to children in low -income countries. About 13% of the Gavi budget in the USAID. As a result, 75 million children are expected to remember regular vaccination over the next five years, resulting in a resulting of 1.3 million stops according to the organization.Countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo play an important role in providing vaccines in areas with limited access to MSF health care, Gavi will be greatly affected by the return of American funding.Nevertheless, despite the failures, the major Bayers of the global funds are hopeful about the future. He said that the countries of Sub-Sahara Africa are in a hurry to plan and come up with domestic funding. “For example, Uganda and Malawi have issued communics saying that their country will step into the gap,” he said. “He has implemented policy measures to support the work of community health workers.”Many people in this region hope that other countries will not follow the US and also cut funds. Burn said, “Now what we find ourselves is not just about a country. For some time there has been a trend in this direction.” “If we do not get infectious diseases under control, we will have to pay more later – and rich countries will also feel so.”
