HIV patient testing falls in SA after US aid cuts, data shows
Given a summary of the data, Foster Mohale, a spokesperson for the department of health, said more analysis was needed and SA had challenges with patient retention and viral load testing before the aid cuts.
HIV experts have said for months the health ministry was downplaying the impact of the funding loss, and a drop in testing figures might be an early warning sign, followed by a rise in new cases and deaths.
The US state department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
'This data demonstrates what previous models have shown regarding the impact of Pepfar/USAID cuts on pregnant women and their infants,' said Dvora Joseph Davey, an epidemiologist working on maternal and infant HIV at the University of Cape Town.
She said the impact was clear at five public health clinics where she works in Cape Town, which since the US aid cuts have been under-staffed, with fewer nurses to draw blood needed for viral load tests.
HIV experts said diagnostic testing was also likely affected by the funding cuts, though that data was not available.
The counsellors who used to do rapid diagnostic HIV tests are also gone, and pregnant women are no longer being put on preventive HIV drugs (PrEP) because the counsellors are the ones who used to offer that, Davey said.
In the Johannesburg township of Diepsloot, HIV activist and community leader Sophy Moatshe said it was hard to get HIV patients to seek care because of the stigma, and without health workers reaching out when they miss an appointment, many fall through the cracks.
'These people, they don't want to go to the clinic,' she said outside a community centre.
'If there is nobody to check them, they're going to die.'
The long-term future of HIV-related US assistance remains uncertain in SA and globally, as Trump pursues cuts to the international aid budget in line with his 'America First' agenda.
The cuts have also hit research, including HIV vaccine trials.
Mohale said the government was speaking to prospective local and international donors about covering funding gaps, but declined to give details.
Davey said the data on testing in April, however, was 'a good indication of what's going to happen in the future'.
Reuters
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