The Trump administration has commissioned organizations from other countries to stop the delivery of drugs for HIV purchased with US aid, even if the drugs have already been obtained and are seated in local clinics.
The directive is part of a wider freezing on foreign aid started last week. It includes the president’s emergency plan for AIDS Relief, the global health program started by George W. Bush, to whom the merit of having saved over 25 million lives all over the world is attributed.
The administration had already moved to prevent Pepfar funding from moving to clinics, hospitals and other organizations in low -income countries.
The appointments are canceled and the patients are removed from the clinics, according to people with knowledge of the situation that feared punishment if they spoke publicly. Many people with HIV are facing brusche interruptions of their treatment.
But most federal officials also have severe orders not to communicate with external partners, leading to confusion and anxiety, according to different people with knowledge of the situation.
The US officials were also said to stop providing technical assistance to national health ministries.
“The partners we collaborate with are in shock and do not know what to do because their mission and the rescue commitment have been violated,” said Asia Russell, executive director of the Health Gap defense group.
On Sunday evening late, according to an e -mail seen from the New York Times, the employees of the centers for the control and prevention of diseases have been educated, with immediate effect, to stop communicating with the staff of the World Health Organization.
Later they were even directed to be in the same meeting room – real or virtual – as employees or to participate in conversations and -mail in which the WHO staff members are also involved.
Some said they were too afraid to contact colleagues who consider friends, even if just to say goodbye, and did not want to be identified for fear of punishment.
On Monday afternoon, officials all over the world were notified that Pepfar data systems would be closed at 18:00 Eastern – about three hours after receiving -mail – immediately closing access to all sets of data, relationships and analytical tools.
“Users should give priority to the copy of documents and key data,” said the E -mail displayed since the times.
The message requested the speculation that the program did not resume, since its future was already under discussion.
Some Republican senators have made a campaign against Pepfar’s authorization for five years, claiming that the program promoted abortions. In March, the program was renewed for a year.
Without care, the levels of viruses in people with HIV will open rapidly, limping the immune systems of infected people and increasing the chances that they spread the virus to others.
About one in three women in untreated pregnancy can pass the virus to their children.
The interrupted treatment can also lead to the emergence of resistant strains that can spread all over the world.
A study estimated that if Pepfar ended up, up to 600,000 lives would have been lost in the next decade in South Africa alone. And that nation is based on Pepfar only for 20 percent of its Budget for HIV. Some poorer countries depend almost entirely on the program.
“This is another domino in the devastating impact of freezing for the programs, leaving lives hanging in the balance,” said Jirair Reyvosian, who was head of Pepfar staff during the Biden administration.