{"id":777541,"date":"2026-07-22T09:04:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777541\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:04:21","slug":"report-says-us-actions-harm-global-efforts-to-prevent-and-treat-hiv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/777541\/","title":{"rendered":"Report says US actions harm global efforts to prevent and treat HIV"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration\u2019s disruptions to a global AIDS relief program<\/a> have forced organizations to close clinics, lay off staff and cut services, seriously impeding efforts to prevent and treat the disease<\/a> in dozens of countries, a new report released Tuesday shows.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR<\/a>, is credited with saving at least 26 million lives since its inception in 2003. But last year, it was impaired by the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development and cuts to thousands of global health grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe disruptions were very widespread,\u201d with services for young women, orphans and children impacted, said Elise Lankiewicz, policy associate for the nonprofit amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, which released the report.<\/p>\n

Researchers contacted groups that got PEPFAR funding to deliver HIV services last year. Nearly a quarter \u2014 166 groups from 46 countries \u2014 responded to an electronic survey conducted between last November and April, providing information on their funding, staff and services.<\/p>\n

The survey didn\u2019t reach all PEPFAR groups and certain types of organizations \u2014 like those that were most severely disrupted or still receiving U.S. funding \u2014 may have been less likely to respond. That could result in an underestimate or an overestimate of disruptions, depending on which organizations were missed. Nevertheless, the findings are a window into the struggles that some groups faced last year.<\/p>\n

Some key findings were:<\/p>\n

\u2014Most organizations had at least one award terminated or payment delayed last year. Terminations led to the closure of more than 1,700 clinics, drop-in centers and other service delivery sites, and to the loss of more than 16,000 full-time staff members.<\/p>\n

\u2014Even though the U.S. government directed services providing HIV treatment, testing, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission to continue, a majority of partners still reported a disruption to those services.<\/p>\n

\u2014Cuts were concentrated on services for populations most impacted by HIV. Most organizations previously serving groups such as sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, and people who inject drugs reported permanently ending a service for these groups. Even among organizations that didn\u2019t lose funding, some reported stopping a service for one of these key populations to comply with U.S. policy.<\/p>\n

\u2014HIV prevention has been sharply reduced, with many organizations stopping condom programs or services offering what\u2019s called PrEP, preventive medicines to guard against sexually transmitted HIV. From fiscal years 2024 to 2025, prevention spending fell 51%, according to PEPFAR expenditure data.<\/p>\n

\u2014Locally-based partners were much more likely than international organizations to have an award terminated and to close service delivery sites. Funding disruptions also destabilized interconnected HIV service systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken together, these results describe widespread degradation of the infrastructure built to deliver HIV services worldwide, with the deepest damage falling on the populations and partners most essential to controlling the epidemic,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

The survey doesn\u2019t provide data at the country level, but amfAR officials point out that the majority of responses came from African countries.<\/p>\n

When asked about the report, a State Department spokesperson said in an email that the Trump administration has \u201cstrengthened PEPFAR through clear, strategic direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, the number of children testing positive and on treatment for HIV has continued to decline,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

In April, the U.S. State Department released PEPFAR data for one quarter in 2025: July through September. Officials said PEPFAR-supported programs provided standard HIV treatment for 20.6 million people in more than 50 countries, which they said is stable from the same reporting period in 2024. They also said PEPFAR started 103,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women on PrEP, up from 43,000 the previous year.<\/p>\n

The data from that quarter \u201cdemonstrates the resilience and strength of the program,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

But researchers from amfAR and the International AIDS Society combined that quarter\u2019s data with another data release that included all four quarters and found substantial disruptions across PEPFAR services.<\/p>\n

Other research, published in the journal Nature Health in June, specifically examined treatment globally using PEPFAR data. It found that nearly two million fewer people living with HIV were receiving PEPFAR-supported antiretroviral treatment in fiscal year 2025 as compared with the previous fiscal year \u2014 about a 10% decline. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat does raise really important questions about program stability,\u201d said Ramona Godbole, an author of that study who wasn\u2019t involved in the latest report. <\/p>\n

AmfAR\u2019s report made numerous recommendations to help restore care. It said the U.S. government and PEPFAR leaders should reinstate support for all HIV services, not just treatment. It also called on other national governments to spend more on HIV services and contract with nongovernmental organizations, including those led by people in key vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

But Jennifer Sherwood, amfAR\u2019s director of research and public policy, said even if money is put back into the system, it will take time to get the services up and running and regain the trust of communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd unfortunately, with HIV and infectious disease, each day is deadly,\u201d she said. \u201cEach day that we don\u2019t have those systems in place, you see new infections.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration\u2019s disruptions to a global AIDS relief program have forced organizations to close clinics, lay off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[12,331443,793,97,32952,331441,15960,331442,1924,21,792,800,965],"class_list":["post-777541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-donald-trump","tag-elise-lankiewicz","tag-general-news","tag-health","tag-hiv-and-aids","tag-jennifer-sherwood","tag-nonprofits","tag-ramona-godbole","tag-u-s-department-of-state","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}