The head of the United Nations AIDS agency said on Monday that the number of new HIV infection can jump more than six times by 2029 if American support is dropped for the largest AIDS program, warning that millions of people can die and that the breeds of the disease are more resistant can It appears.
In an interview with Associated Press, the CEO of UNAIDS Winnie Pianima said that HIV has decreased in recent years, with only 1.3 million new cases in 2023, a 60 percent decrease since its peak in 1995.
But since US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States will freeze all foreign aid for 90 days, Poemima said that officials estimate that by 2029, there may be 8.7 million people who are newly injured in HIV, which is ten times a leap in a related death. AIDS-to 6.3 million people- and 3.4 million additional children made orphans.
“We will see an increase in this disease,” said Boemima, speaking from Uganda. “This will cost a life if the US government does not change its opinion and maintain its leadership,” she said, adding that it was not in its place to criticize any government’s policy.
BYANYIA defended the Trump administration not to cut sudden financing, which she said resulted in “panic, fear and confusion” in many African countries in which AIDS suffered.
In one of the Kenyan provinces, 550 HIV workers have been immediately demobilized, while thousands of others were finished in Ethiopia, leaving health officials unable to track the epidemic.
She noted that the loss of American financing for HIV programs in some countries was catastrophic, with external financing, most of them from the United States, which represents about 90 % of its programs. She said that approximately $ 400 million goes to countries such as Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania.
Get weekly health news
Receive the latest medical news and health information provided to you every Sunday.
“We can work with (Americans) on how to reduce their contribution if they want to reduce it,” she said. Byanyima described the American withdrawal of global HIV efforts as the second largest crisis that the field has ever faced-after a delay lasted the years that lasted a year to provide poor countries to obtain life-saving antivirals in the rich countries.
BYANYAMA also said that the loss of American support in the efforts to combat HIV was at another critical time, with its calls the “magic prevention tool” known as Lenacapavir, a shot twice showing that it provides full protection against HIV in women, Which I worked almost as well as for men.
Bayraima said that the wide use of that shot, in addition to other interventions to stop HIV, can help end the disease as a general health problem in the next five years.
I also noticed that Lenacapavir, which was sold as Sunlenca, was developed by the American company Gilead.
“An American company helped innovate to reach something that would push them millions and millions, but at the same time it prevents new infections in the rest of the world,” said byanyima international aid. She said that the freezing in American financing had no economic meaning.
“We appeal to the US government to review this, to understand that this is useful for both parties,” she said, noting that foreign assistance is less than 1 % of the total American budget. “Why do you need to be very troubled for this 1 %?”
BYANYIA said that so far, no other countries or donors have risen to fill the void that the loss of American aid will leave, but it plans to visit many European capitals to speak with global leaders.
She said, “People will die because life saving tools have been taken away from them.” “I have not yet heard of any European country committed to entering, but I know that they listen and try to know where they can come because they care about rights and humanity.”
And copied 2025 Canadian press
