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\n The United States has suspended some funding for its flagship AIDS relief program, according to international organizations and members of Congress who warn the cuts are already hurting patients and halting critical projects globally.\n <\/p>\n
\n The full extent of the budget cuts related to US-funded HIV\/AIDS relief work is highly unclear, and Congress is still battling the White House\u2019s proposed budget clawbacks and withholding of billions of dollars in funding.\n <\/p>\n
\n PEPFAR, formally called the US President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, is credited with saving more than 26 million lives over the past two decades and preventing millions of HIV infections, particularly in Africa.\n <\/p>\n
\n Last year alone, government figures show that PEPFAR provided 20.6 million people with life-saving HIV medicines, called antiretroviral therapy. It also supported more than 342,000 health workers to deliver HIV treatments, prevention care and support services, bolstering healthcare systems in more than 50 countries<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Funding for the landmark program \u2013 established in 2003 by the Bush administration \u2013 was primarily implemented by USAID, which US President Donald Trump dismantled earlier this year after a freeze on foreign aid. The US State Department later issued a waiver to exempt life-saving services from that freeze, including those of PEPFAR, and moved operations to the State Department\u2019s remit.\n <\/p>\n \n But nonprofits are sounding the alarm that HIV\/AIDS projects have been terminated regardless. And without USAID, implementation of many planned initiatives has also stalled. Such cuts are severely disrupting patients\u2019 medical care across Africa, Asia and Latin America, threatening the global fight against the disease, they say.\n <\/p>\n \n UNAIDS, the United Nations\u2019 agency working to end AIDS, has cited examples around the world of medicine stockouts, staffing cuts at HIV\/AIDS clinics, suspended community outreach services and \u201crising levels of stigma, discrimination and mortality rates\u201d in the wake of the US funding cuts<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The suspensions have caused major disruptions to HIV responses in dozens of countries, including Uganda<\/a>, the Philippines<\/a> and Tanzania,<\/a> the UN agency said.\n <\/p>\n \n People living with HIV are skipping and rationing doses of antiretroviral medications, creating conditions for drug-resistant HIV strains to emerge, according to the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled testimonies<\/a> of healthcare disruptions from people in Tanzania and Uganda.\n <\/p>\n \n Doctors Without Borders<\/a> has warned that \u201cPEPFAR faces an uncertain future\u201d and that project cancellations following the dismantling of USAID have already impacted humanitarian work.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPEPFAR\u2019s scope of work has already been dramatically reduced since January when the State Department restricted its work on key areas of HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support,\u201d the Doctors Without Borders statement said, contradicting the US government\u2019s repeated claims that lifesaving aid work is being preserved.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCuts are not just hitting program activities and medical stocks; they are crippling the logistical backbone of HIV care. Transport for distributing supplies has all but vanished,\u201d said the organization\u2019s representative in Zimbabwe, Zahra Zeggani-Bec.\n <\/p>\n \n World Vision, an international Christian organization focusing on poverty and development, told CNN it had a large PEPFAR program in Kenya that had been terminated.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThat (program) had focused primarily on orphans and vulnerable children and prevention activities,\u201d said Margaret Schuler, World Vision\u2019s chief impact officer. Shuler said it was surprising that \u201cwhat would have been considered \u2018lifesaving programs\u2019 were terminated,\u201d including other World Vision programs related to health care and disease control.\n <\/p>\n \n PEPFAR reporting data has been publicly unavailable for months, meaning there\u2019s little clarity on the program\u2019s ongoing activities. A message<\/a> on the government website says it is \u201cundergoing updates.\u201d The release dates for 2025 PEPFAR data reports are all listed as \u201cTBD.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n A State Department spokesperson told CNN that \u201cdata collection is ongoing to capture recent updates to programming.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n UNAIDS said in a report in April that, among 70 of its country offices, 28 (40%) had witnessed an end to community-led services due to the US funding cuts. Meanwhile, 21 (30%) reported that services by international NGOs had been stopped.\n <\/p>\n \n Some of that work may have resumed, but it\u2019s impossible to determine how much, given the lack of data on the budget, contracted services and \u201cwhat has actually been delivered,\u201d said Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a think tank based in the US and UK.\n <\/p>\n \n He wrote in an analysis of the status of US aid operations<\/a> that \u201cright now, Congress and taxpayers have no visibility on what the foreign assistance system is trying to accomplish, let alone if that is happening.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Secretary of State Marco Rubio has stated PEPFAR is an important and life-saving program that will continue, a State Department spokesperson told CNN, adding that Rubio has \u201calso said that PEPFAR, like all assistance programs, should be reduced over time as they are impactful in achieving their mission.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Last week, the State Department announced a joint commitment with the Global Fund to purchase the drug lenacapavir, an HIV prevention injection that only has to be taken twice a year, from the American biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. PEPFAR will distribute the drug in eight to 12 high-burden HIV countries in 2026, with a focus on reducing the number of new HIV infections in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, according to a State Department statement<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released only about half ($2.9 billion) of the $6 billion appropriated by Congress for PEPFAR\u2019s 2025 funding, according to budget documents<\/a> on a nonprofit website that tracks the OMB.\n <\/p>\n \n A congressional aide raised concerns that the budget document listed billions of dollars of this year\u2019s funds as part of fiscal year 2026, which the aide described as atypical.\n <\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1757767268_997_002-002-gettyimages-2212122508.jpg\")
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