The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has authorized an Emergency Humanitarian Waiver to ensure continued access to US-funded HIV treatment for individuals in 55 countries, including Nigeria, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
In a statement on Wednesday, UNAIDS highlighted that over 20 million people—two-thirds of all individuals receiving HIV treatment globally—benefit directly from the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the world’s largest HIV initiative.
UNAIDS collaborates with global and national partners to achieve the goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals.
“UNAIDS welcomes this waiver from the US government which ensures that millions of people living with HIV can continue to receive life-saving HIV medication during the assessment of US foreign development assistance,” said UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima. “This urgent decision recognizes PEPFAR’s critical role in the AIDS response and restores hope to people living with HIV.”
The US Department of State recently announced an executive order on an immediate 90-day funding pause for all foreign assistance, including for funding and services supported by PEPFAR.
The executive order announcing a “90-day pause in United States foreign development assistance for assessment of programmatic efficiencies and consistency with United States foreign policy” was one of the first major foreign policy decisions of the new administration.
However, UNAIDS stated that this waiver approves the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance,” which applies to core life-saving medicine and medical services, including HIV treatment, as well as to supplies necessary to deliver such assistance.
‘UNAIDS will continue efforts to ensure that all people living with or affected by HIV are served and that other key components of PEPFAR’s life-saving efforts, including service delivery and services for HIV prevention, care, and support for orphans and vulnerable children are continued.
“UNAIDS is serving in its essential role to mobilize and convene partners, governments, and communities across the globe at the country level to assess and mitigate the impact of the pause on the continuity of essential HIV services.
“UNAIDS has encouraged President Donald J. Trump to prioritize the U.S. Government’s leadership in the global HIV response to achieve the shared goal of ending AIDS,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) voiced deep concern over the potential impact of an immediate funding freeze on HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries.
According to WHO, these programs provide life-saving HIV treatment to over 30 million people worldwide. By the end of 2023, an estimated 39.9 million people were living with HIV globally.
The organization warned that halting funding could put those living with HIV at greater risk of illness and death while also jeopardizing efforts to prevent transmission within communities and countries.
“Such measures, if prolonged, could lead to rises in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally, including many in the United States of America.
“For the global community, this could result in significant setbacks to progress in partnerships and investments in scientific advances that have been the cornerstone of good public health programming, including innovative diagnostics, affordable medicines, and community delivery models of HIV care.
“We call on the United States Government to enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment and care,” it noted.
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