President Donald Trump’s decision to cease US foreign aid and funding to Pretoria due to its new land-expropriation law means that South Africa will need to find 7.5 billion rand ($405 million) to keep the country’s long-standing HIV programs running smoothly.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said MPs in Cape Town on Wednesday that the authorities would need 2.9 billion rand ($156 million) to cover operating expenses in addition to the 4.6 billion rand ($242 million) required for staffing.
Millions of lives have been saved throughout Africa for more than 20 years thanks to US funding from the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, or Pepfar. Important fields including data gathering, research, communication, and surveillance are all impacted by the funding interruption.
Nearly 13% of South Africans, or 7.8 million people, are infected with the virus that causes AIDS, which is the largest HIV epidemic in the world. The HIV-AIDS program in South Africa receives over a quarter of its financing from Pepfar, which supports 27 of the 52 health districts in the country.
Even though there has been significant progress in combating the HIV epidemic, it can be difficult to get people back on treatment after an interruption in services, and they run the risk of becoming contagious again if they don’t.
Without humanitarian programs, the Andelson Office of Public Policy estimates that over 230 newborns in South Africa will be born infected with HIV every day.
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Infants who are infected at birth are at increased risk of dying and will need to take antiretroviral medication for the rest of their lives. In most cases, the disease is lethal without such treatment.
“Taking the foot off the pedal on surveillance, research, communication and data collection harms the global community almost more than individuals in individual countries,” said Linda-Gail Bekker, chief executive officer of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation in Cape Town.
Additionally, the likelihood of other infectious illnesses spreading increases in the absence of a robust HIV program.
“Infectious diseases often track together, so the first co-infection that I worry a great deal about is tuberculosis,” said Bekker. “It’s an airborne condition. It has no borders.”
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