South Africa does not plan to replace US HIV funds yet, minister says
By Nellie Peyton
PRETORIA (Reuters) -South Africa's Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said on Thursday that the government had not secured any new funding yet for HIV after the U.S. cut aid, and denied reports that its HIV programme was badly affected.
The United States' global HIV initiative, PEPFAR, was paying for about 17% of South Africa's HIV budget until President Donald Trump slashed aid shortly after taking office.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that HIV viral load testing had already fallen significantly across South Africa since the funding cut, which experts said was a clear sign that the health system was under strain.
Motsoaledi acknowledged there were some problems but said it was inconceivable that South Africa's HIV programme could collapse and accused the media of spreading a negative message.
"If the tests have gone down ... we will try to correct it, but we do not think it is a train smash," he said.
Once the global epicentre of the HIV/AIDS crisis, South Africa has made huge strides in reducing cases and deaths in the last 20 years. But it still has the world's highest burden of HIV, with one in five adults living with the virus.
The U.S. funding paid the salaries of more than 15,000 health workers, about 8,000 of whom have now lost their jobs, said Motsoaledi.
"I'm not going to stand here in front of you and claim that we have got any plan for the 8,000 people beyond just speaking to funders and our own Treasury, which still have not yet responded on what's going to happen," he told reporters.
His comments angered many people who work in the health sector, who have said for weeks that the government was not taking the funding loss seriously enough.
HIV activists interrupted a parliamentary session in Cape Town on Wednesday in protest, demanding that the state put in place an emergency plan.
"The health minister is in denial, and once again, South Africa will have to deal with the harmful public health consequences of not just the Trump administration, but also our own government's failure to plan adequately for months now," said Fatima Hassan, founder of the Health Justice Initiative, a South African NGO. ($1 = 18.1826 rand)
(Additional reporting by Sfundo Parakozov; Editing by Louise Heavens)
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