Aisha* once relied on free antiretroviral therapy (ART) from a clinic in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria, funded through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme.
The treatment kept the HIV in her body suppressed.
That changed when US President Donald Trump ordered a halt to PEPFAR funding in January 2025.
“When I went to the facility and was told the drugs were no longer available for free, my heart sank because I couldn’t afford to pay for them out of pocket,” Aisha* told SciDev.Net.
Although PEPFAR partially resumed its activities in February 2025, the programme was subject to significant budget cuts. A study by amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, found that at least 1,714 HIV service sites globally closed entirely after terminated or delayed PEPFAR payments and almost none could replace lost funding.
