The funding cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) by the Trump administration have led to the closure of more than 1,700 HIV clinics and service sites across 46 countries, according to a new study by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). The report found that at least 16,000 health workers lost their jobs, while HIV prevention programs (including condom distribution and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP)) experienced severe disruptions, with prevention spending falling by more than 50%. Although the Trump administration said that lifesaving HIV treatment would continue, many organizations have reported interruptions to treatment, testing, and services for populations disproportionately affected by HIV, including sex workers, transgender people, men who have sex with men, and injectable drug users.
Furthermore, cuts to USAID funding have left thousands of aid workers in Nepal unemployed, with some women saying they have turned to sex work to meet basic needs after losing stable incomes. Aid organizations warn that the funding reductions have not only disrupted humanitarian and public health programs but have also pushed vulnerable workers into precarious forms of labor – the precarious forms of labor that these workers were employed to improve in the first place. This is yet another example of the broader social and economic consequences of sudden foreign aid cuts by the current American administration.
There is, however, amazingly, some good news to report! Despite these challenging economic and political conditions, Cambodia has become a regional leader in HIV prevention. It has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets (95% of people living with HIV diagnosed, 95% of those on treatment, and 95% of those virally suppressed), quite a milestone for a medium-sized developing nation.
