TAG: health-policies
DESCRIPTION: The US Global AIDS Coordinator, Deborah Birx, has announced that funding for prevention, treatment, and vaccination for four diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and maternal and child nutrition – will be frozen in 2021 and decreased by 20% in 2022, according to data presented by Birx to a Congressional hearing on Global Health Programs. The proposed cuts would affect hundreds of thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 25 million people rely on this support, including 6.7 million people receiving care for HIV. Advocates warn of the consequences of this deprioritization, potentially increasing deaths from treatable diseases such as malaria, and raising the risk of outbreaks, as well as reversing the gains made against HIV, thus endangering new infections and repeat infections. Experts highlight that the proposed cuts would threaten years of progress, undermine pandemic preparedness, and have devastating ripple effects on the world’s most vulnerable populations, disproportionately affecting women, girls, and communities living on the margins.
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