TRANSCRIPT
The World Health Organization has sounded the alarm.
Millions of lives are now hanging in the balance due to funding cuts imposed by the Trump administration.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the WHO, lays out the stakes in no uncertain terms.
“The suspension of most funding to PEPFAR, the president's emergency plan for AIDS relief, caused an immediate stop to services for HIV treatment, testing, and prevention in more than 50 countries. Eight countries now have substantial disruptions to antiretroviral therapy and will run out of medicines in the coming months. Disruptions to HIV programs could undo 20 years of progress, leading to more than 10 million additional cases of HIV and 3 million HIV-related deaths, more than triple the number of deaths last year.”
The numbers are staggering.
More than 50 countries have felt the shock of this decision, with eight of them, Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, and Ukraine, on the brink of running out of life-saving HIV treatments altogether.
And it’s not just HIV programs that are being affected.
The disruption is rippling across multiple global health efforts.
The WHO is warning that efforts to combat polio, malaria, and tuberculosis are also at serious risk.
“The sudden cuts to US funding are also affecting efforts to eradicate polio, to monitor the emergence of diseases such as avian influenza, and to respond to disease outbreaks and humanitarian crisis. Almost 24 million people living in such crisis are at risk of not being able to access essential health services. More than 2,600 health facilities in 12 humanitarian crisis have already suspended services at least partially or will do very soon.”
This isn't just a matter of numbers, it’s a matter of human lives.
In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world, the diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C has come to a halt.
Disease surveillance, health care services, and even the procurement of supplies are now uncertain.
Meanwhile, in Afghanistan, where 80 per cent of WHO-supported essential healthcare services are at risk of shutting down; over 220 facilities could close by June without urgent intervention.
The United States has historically been a leader in global health efforts.
Over the last 20 years, US contributions have helped prevent an estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths.
But the impact of these cuts could reverse 15 years of progress in malaria prevention alone.
“There are now severe disruptions to the supply of malaria diagnostics, medicines, and insecticide-treated bed nets due to stock-outs, delayed delivery, or lack of funding. ... If disruptions continue, we could see an additional 15 million cases of malaria and 107,000 deaths this year alone, reversing 15 years of progress.”
The WHO’s Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network, which has more than 700 sites worldwide, also faces imminent shutdown.
This comes at a time when measles cases are making a comeback in the United States.
Mr Tedros has acknowledged that the US has been extremely generous over the years, but says that pulling the plug on funding in such an abrupt way will have devastating consequences.
“The US administration has been extremely generous over many years. And of course, it's within its rights to decide what it supports and to what extent. But the US also has a responsibility to ensure that if it withdraws direct funding for countries, it's done in an orderly and humane way that allows them to find alternative sources of funding. We ask the US to reconsider its support for global health, which not only saves lives around the world, it also makes the US safer by preventing outbreaks from spreading internationally.”
It is not only the United Nations warning of severe repercussions as the United States pulls back on its financial commitments to humanitarian and development programmes.
The International Red Cross is as well.
Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the International Red Cross says the United States' role in global aid is irreplaceable.
“We believe that the US role in the global humanitarian and development area is critical, and I think it will be very hard for anybody to replace what the US has been doing. So I really hope that through constructive engagement, we can find a more balanced solution moving forward.”
For decades, US aid has supported critical health programmes, disaster relief, and conflict resolution worldwide.
But now, with resources shrinking, organisations on the ground are being forced to make heartbreaking decisions, deciding who gets help and who doesn’t.
“If we don't hang onto hope, it's very, very hard because most of the time what we do is in a disaster situation, crisis situation, we see human suffering all the time. And I can tell you that many of our colleagues have to decide at times, like they had to do during the COVID-19 time and many other crises, that we can support this group of people, but we cannot support this group of people because the resources are never enough.”
Meanwhile, international donors have pledged billions of dollars (A$ 10.2 billion) in aid for Syria, aiming to support its new leadership in achieving a peaceful political transition after President Bashar Assad was ousted in December.
Dubravka Suica is the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean.
“You know that European Union and member states remain so far I know by now, remain the biggest donor, representing around three quarters of the pledge of grants. But now I have the honour to announce that together we have pledged a total of 5.8 billion (euros) in grants and loans and also 4.2 billion euros in grants and 1.6 billion in loans.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says other nations need to make up the deficit.
“During the last 14 years the United States has provided more assistance for the Syrian people than any other nation. More than 18.3 billion dollars. We will continue to provide certain assistance in line with US policies and laws. But we also now expect that other nations are going to help shoulder the financial burden the United States has long carried.”
