The UN AIDS agency head, said Monday that the number of new HIV infections could jump more than six times by 2029 if US support of the largest AIDS program is eliminated, warning that millions of people could die and that more resistant strains of the disease could arise. .
In an interview with The Associated Press, the UN executive director, Winnie Byanyima, said that HIV infections have been falling in recent years, with only 1.3 million new cases recorded in 2023, a 60 percent decrease since that the virus reached its maximum point in 1995.
But since the announcement of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, the United States would freeze all foreign assistance for 90 days, Byanyima said that officials estimate that by 2029, there could be 8.7 million newly infected people with HIV, a jump of Ten times in the deaths related to the AID, to 6.3 million, to 6.3 million and 3.4 million additional children made orphans.
“We will see an increase in this disease,” said Byanyima, speaking from Uganda. “This will cost lives if the US government does not change their minds and maintains its leadership,” he said, adding that it was not his place to criticize the policy of any government.
Byanyima begged the Trump administration not to cut off the funds, which she has resulted in “panic, fear and confusion” in many of the African countries most affected by AIDS.
In a Kenyan county, he said that 550 HIV workers were dismissed immediately, while thousands of others in Ethiopia were completed, leaving health officials unable to track the epidemic.
He pointed out that the loss of US funds to HIV programs in some countries was catastrophic, with external funds, mainly from the United States, which represents approximately 90% of its programs. Almost $ 400 million are allocated to countries such as Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania, he said.
Obtain weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information given every Sunday.
“We can work with (the Americans) on how to reduce their contribution if they wish to reduce it,” he said. Byanyima described the American withdrawal of the global HIV efforts as the second largest crisis that the field has faced, after the delay of the years it took in poor countries to put the antiretrovirals that save lives available for a long time in countries rich.
Byanyima also said that the loss of American support in the efforts to combat HIV was at another critical moment, with the arrival of what he called “a magical prevention tool” known as Lenacapavir, a shot twice a year that was shown that it was shown that It offered complete HIV protection in women, and that worked almost so good as for men.
The generalized use of that shot, in addition to other interventions to stop HIV, could help end the disease as a public health problem in the next five years, said Byanyima.
He also pointed out that Lenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca, was developed by the American company Gilead.
International Aid, Byanyima said: “He helped an American company to innovate, to create something that will be paid millions and millions, but at the same time avoid new infections in the rest of the world.” Freezing in US financing, he said, made no economic sense.
“We appeal to the United States government to review this, to understand that this is mutually beneficial,” he said, and said that foreign assistance represents less than 1% of the United States general budget. “Why would you need to be so harmful to that 1%?”
Byanyima said that until now, no other country or donors have realized to fill the void that will leave the loss of American help, but that it plans to visit numerous European capitals to speak with global leaders.
“People are going to die because they have taken away the tools that save lives,” he said. “I have not yet heard of any European country that undertakes to intervene, but I know they are listening and trying to see where they can enter because they care about rights, for humanity.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press