South Africa HIV Funding Cuts: Impact & Future
Discover the critical impact of US funding cuts on South Africa’s fight against HIV. These cuts are jeopardizing vital progress, leaving the center of the world’s HIV pandemic in crisis, as clinics close and individuals struggle to afford life-saving medication. The primarykeyword, HIV funding, is under threat. Understand how the secondarykeyword, antiretroviral medication, is affected. Ramphelane Morewane describes the situation as a crisis. With approximately 7.7 million people living with HIV in South Africa, alternative funding is
US aid cuts threaten HIV progress in South Africa
Lebo, a 62-year-old sex worker in Johannesburg, South Africa, is struggling to
afford her HIV medication after a clinic she relied on closed in January.
The closure was a result of funding cuts to the global HIV response by
the United States.
“I’m weak…So please, we need help; we are suffering,” said lebo, who
now spends 30% of her monthly income of 1,500 rand (£62) on
antiretroviral (ARV) medication.
Ramphelane Morewane, who leads the HIV/Aids response in the country’s
health ministry, described the situation in South Africa, the centre of
the world’s HIV pandemic, as a “crisis.”
HIV-positive Lebo, 62, who lost access to her treatment when US funding
cuts forced a specialist clinic serving sex workers like her to close.
Photograph: Rachel Savage/The Guardian
Lebo recounted being mistreated at a government clinic after her regular
clinic closed. “They said, ‘Go back, it’s not your clinic… it’s not my
problem.’ I was crying,” she said.
Q&A: Which countries are worst affected by the HIV epidemic?
• The countries of eastern and southern Africa are at the centre of
the HIV/Aids epidemic, and are home to
about half
of all people living with HIV.
• In 2023 the number of people living with HIV
was 7.7 million
in South Africa, about 12% of the population. Adult HIV prevalence
exceeds 10% of the population in
Eswatini,
Botswana,
Lesotho
and
Zimbabwe.
• Globally, in 2023 there were 1.3 million new cases to add to the
world total
of about 39.9 million people. Of those, 53% are women and girls.
since the start of the epidemic in
1981, 42.3 million people have died of Aids-related illness.
•
In the early days, Aids denialism in Europe and North America caught on in South
Africa and became a huge problem for medical professionals.
The intervention
of Nelson Mandela in 2000 is thought to have turned the tide.
•The UN-agreed target
(Enduring development Goal) is to end Aids as a public health
threat by 2030 and to dramatically reduce new HIV infections, but
it is not on track.
According to UNAids, approximately 7.7 million people in South Africa
were living with HIV in 2023, representing about 12% of the population.
This is a important advancement from the era of former president Thabo
Mbeki’s denialism in the 2000s.New infections have decreased to less
than a third of what they were in 2000, and deaths are a fifth of the
260,000 recorded at the epidemic’s peak in 2004.
However, these gains are now threatened by the loss of US aid, which the
South African government said was meant to be 7.6bn rand (£316m) for the
12 months to March 2026, accounting for 17% of that year’s funding for
the HIV response.
South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa with Donald Trump at the White House. US
cuts shut many clinics in South Africa. photograph: Reuters
What’s next
The South African government is seeking alternative funding sources to
mitigate the impact of the US aid cuts and maintain progress in the fight
against HIV/Aids.