The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says the suspension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) funding for the treatment of HIV/AIDS will have a catastrophic impact on patients. This is because the Trump Administration has now put funding for NGOs in South Africa on hold.
The immediate cessation of PEPFAR funding has resulted in the sudden suspension of critical health support services at NGO’s across the nation.
This funding is critical to sustain life-saving treatment for South Africans, as well as support services for babies and orphans.
The TAC’s Mark Heywood says HIV and Aids patients in South Africa are going to be severely affected.
“It will have a very serious impact and it’s not so much the impact on NGOs but it’s the impact on people living with HIV and patients, because most of the PEPFAR funding, goes to research institutes that employ doctors who are seconded to work in public sector clinics around the country to provide services to vulnerable groups such as people from the LGBTIQ community and directly to provide medicine so the impact is really on the front line.”
