A new study claims that nearly 11 million more people could become infected with HIV, and 3 million could die by the end of the decade, due to foreign aid cuts impacting funding for HIV prevention and treatment.
Published in The Lancet HIV, the study estimates the potential public health impact of proposed foreign aid cuts by the five donor countries that account for 90% of all international HIV funding.
Those countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
The greatest impact of the cuts would be felt in sub-Saharan Africa and among vulnerable or marginalized populations at higher risk of HIV, including children, injection-drug users, sex workers, and men who have sex with men, reports Politico.
The United States has slashed funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, including funding for HIV treatment and prevention programs.
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, a program focusing on reducing HIV incidence globally funded through multiple government agencies — which has been credited with saving 26 million lives since its implementation in 2003 — is also at risk.
In February, the United Kingdom announced a planned cut to international spending, while the Netherlands is cutting foreign aid by 2.4 billion euros, or approximately $2.6 billion in U.S. dollars.
Germany and France cut their foreign aid budgets last year, representing a loss of about 3 billion euros.
Using mathematical modeling, researchers found that the planned reductions in international aid, plus discontinued PEPFAR support, could result in between 4.43 to 10.75 million new HIV infections by 2030. That could likely result in as many as 3 million HIV-related deaths, compared to the status quo.
The study found that if PEPFAR support were reinstated, the number of new infections would be reduced to 1.73 million with 61,000 HIV-related deaths. The impact of loss of funding was felt more acutely in countries that are heavily reliant upon international funding and in countries whee HIV rates among key populations.
The study coincides with warnings from HIV prevention advocates that the abrupt cancellation of USAID money would likely only accelerate the spread of HIV.
According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the HIV Medicine Association, dozens of USAID programs that implement PEPFAR have been shut down in countries with a high incidence of HIV.
Halting HIV treatment for those who have begun it can also lead to the development of drug-resistant HIV that would be much harder to control.
“The current cuts to PEPFAR and USAID-supported programs have already disrupted access to essential HIV services including for antiretroviral therapy and HIV prevention and testing,” Debra ten Brink, of the Burnet Institute, and the co-lead author of the study, told Politico in a statement. She warned that, if other donor countries also reduce their funding, “decades of progress to treat and prevent HIV could be unravelled.”
Dutch authorities say Veronica Clifford-Carlos failed to prove she faces a "legitimate risk of persecution" or threat of physical harm in the United States.
A Dutch court has upheld a ruling rejecting a U.S. transgender woman's bid for asylum, finding she does not face a substantial enough threat of persecution in her home country.
Veronica Clifford-Carlos, a 28-year-old visual artist from California, said she once believed she’d build a life in the United States, but felt compelled to flee after receiving death threats over her gender identity.
Clifford-Carlos left the United States -- leaving behind friends and her dog -- and flew to the Netherlands with her father. Upon arrival, she applied for asylum, telling authorities about the abuse she endured in the United States, particularly after President Donald Trump’s re-election last fall.
Ten people are on trial in France, accused of engaging in sexist online harassment of First Lady Brigitte Macron by spreading false and malicious claims about her.
The posts alleged that the French president's wife is transgender and was born male under the name Jean-Michel Trogneux -- the name of her older brother. Some also equated the 25-year age gap between the 72-year-old first lady and her 47-year-old husband to "pedophilia," according to Agence France-Presse.
The Macrons first met in 1993, when Brigitte was a 39-year-old married teacher at Lycée La Providence in Amiens and Emmanuel Macron was her 15-year-old student -- and a classmate of her daughter. (The age of consent in France is 15.) They reconnected years later after Macron graduated from Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and married in 2007.
The Netherlands has elected an openly gay prime minister -- and its youngest ever -- following a surprise political upset.
Rob Jetten, 38, made history when his centrist-liberal D66 party defeated right-wing populist Geert Wilders and his Party for Freedom. Wilders, an anti-immigration firebrand and longtime EU skeptic, had been heavily favored to win. But D66 ran up margins in the country’s major cities to overcome his lead, reported the BBC.
“We are the biggest party in the Netherlands! Now we’ll get to work for all Dutch people,” Jetten wrote on X.
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