US Secretary of State Waives Halt on Distribution of HIV Medications
DLHA Staff Writer
Sen. Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State.
THURSDAY, Jan. 30, 2025 – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Tuesday, January 28, some concessions to the halt placed on distributions of global HIV treatments via the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), according to The New York Times.
However, exactly what the waiver covers remains unclear. While it allows for the resumption of distribution of HIV medications, the freeze on other services, including the distribution of preventive drugs, is still believed to be in place.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 42.3 million lives to date have been lost globally due to HIV/AIDS, and transmission is ongoing in all countries.
It was estimated that 39.9 million people were living with HIV at the end of 2023; 65% of whom were in the WHO African Region.
In 2023 alone, an estimated 630 000 people died from HIV-related causes and an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV.
Although there is no cure for HIV infection, access to effective HIV prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care, including for opportunistic infections, has made living with HIV infection more manageable as a chronic health condition, enabling people living with HIV to lead long and healthy lives.
While it is true that without the ready availability of subsidised HIV medications in developing countries especially, there is a higher risk for HIV developing resistance to current medications, the Trump Administration’s move to review global HIV/AIDS funding under PEPFAR, also provides a wakeup call to African nations to put more funding of their own to their public health challenges rather than depend on strings-attached handouts from foreign nations of the global north.
Published: January 30, 2025
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