Cuts to a major U.S.-funded AIDS program have forced clinics to close, staff to lose their jobs, and HIV services to collapse across dozens of countries, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report was produced by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research.
It examines the fallout from disruptions to PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Launched in 2003, PEPFAR is credited with saving at least 26 million lives. Last year, the program was hit hard when the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and cut thousands of global health grants.
"The disruptions were very widespread," said Elise Lankiewicz, a policy associate at amfAR. Services for young women, orphans and children were among those affected, she said.
Researchers surveyed organizations that had received PEPFAR funding to deliver HIV services last year. Of those contacted, 166 groups from 46 countries responded. The survey did not reach every funded organization, and some of the hardest-hit groups may not have replied — meaning the true scale of the damage could be worse, or in some cases less severe, than the findings suggest.
