“Biggest setback in decades” in the fight against HIV

TT

Updated 15.56 | Published 15.46

 

Lisebo Lechela, an HIV-positive sex worker, poses for a picture in her house in Maputsoe, Lesotho earlier this year. Lechela lost her job at a US-funded non-profit organization when the US cut aid. Photo: Bram Janssen/AP/TT

Dramatic and abrupt cuts in aid have devastating consequences for the fight against HIV and AIDS, warns the UN.

– The global HIV response has suffered its biggest setback in decades, Winnie Byanyima, head of the UN program Unaids, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday.

According to Byanyima, the withdrawal of support has led to a “collapse” of HIV prevention efforts around the world. It risks leading to 3.3 million new infections by 2030, she says.

The UN has previously warned that the US decision to close the development aid agency USAID could lead to millions more deaths from AIDS. More than 20 million people, most of them in Africa, already receive antiretroviral drugs through the US emergency plan for HIV and AIDS, Pepfar.

However, it is not only the US that has reduced support for HIV efforts, Byanyima emphasizes in Geneva.

“The cuts are overall severe,” she says.