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After US aid cuts, data shows HIV testing drops in South Africa
Bangkok Post Group
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5/15/2025
Previously unpublished data has shown that the testing and monitoring of HIV patients has dropped in South Africa, which has the world's highest HIV burden, since aid cuts carried out by U.S. President Donald Trump. - REUTERS
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00:01
The testing and monitoring of HIV patients in South Africa has significantly fallen.
00:06
Previously unpublished government data has shown.
00:09
That's since, and according to four HIV experts, appears to be because of,
00:14
a U.S. cut-in aid that funded health workers and clinics.
00:18
Wow, people are going to die. Really, people are going to die.
00:23
That's Sophie Mowatze, an HIV activist and community leader in the Johannesburg township of Diepsloot.
00:30
South Africa has the world's highest burden of HIV.
00:34
Around 8 million people, or one in five adults, live with the virus.
00:40
But Mowatze said it can be hard to get HIV patients to seek care because of stigma.
00:45
The U.S. was funding 17% of South Africa's HIV budget before President Donald Trump's cuts.
00:54
That paid for resources like, for example, the salaries of 15,000 healthcare workers
00:59
under the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.
01:04
Those healthcare workers carried out tests and counselling and followed up with patients.
01:09
PEPFAR funding also supported NGO-run clinics, which have now closed.
01:14
Having frozen many foreign aid programs, Trump has reinstated some life-saving assistance,
01:20
including parts of PEPFAR.
01:22
But he's also targeted South Africa specifically,
01:25
cutting all funding to the country via an executive order in February.
01:31
In the last two months, according to data from South Africa's National Health Laboratory Service,
01:36
viral load testing has fallen.
01:39
It measures how much of the virus is in the blood of people living with HIV,
01:43
who are on antiretroviral treatment.
01:46
That checks if treatment is working and if the virus is sufficiently suppressed
01:50
to prevent it from spreading to others.
01:53
The data showed viral load testing is down more than 21% for pregnant women,
01:58
while early infant diagnostic testing has dropped almost 20%.
02:02
Here's epidemiologist Devorah Joseph-Davy.
02:06
All of this testing is not getting done.
02:09
We don't know what level of virus pregnant women have.
02:13
We don't know how many infants are acquiring HIV.
02:16
And unfortunately, all of these people are the most vulnerable in our society here.
02:22
And so pregnant women and infants are at extreme risk of HIV infection,
02:28
HIV transmission, without PEPFAR and governments of South Africa support.
02:32
Amid Trump's America First agenda, the long-term future of HIV-related U.S. assistance
02:38
in South Africa, and indeed the rest of the world, remains unclear.
02:43
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
02:48
A spokesperson for South Africa's Department of Health,
02:50
given a summary of the testing data, said more analysis was needed.
02:55
He added that South Africa already had challenges with patient retention
02:58
and viral load testing before the aid cuts.
03:02
However, HIV experts have been saying for months
03:04
that the health ministry has been downplaying the impact of the funding loss.
03:08
A drop in testing figures could be an early warning sign, they added,
03:12
followed by a rise in new cases and deaths.
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