HIV testing and monitoring down by a fifth after Trump aid cuts
Crucial testing and monitoring of vulnerable South African HIV patients has fallen by up to a fifth since Donald Trump cut aid to health workers and clinics, government data shows.
The testing to monitor blood virus levels has fallen by 17 per cent in young people, and by 21 per cent in pregnant women.
The data reported by Reuters also shows that testing in infants has fallen by a fifth and is one of the most concrete signs yet of the effect the aid cuts are having on the country with the highest number infected by HIV.
Aaron Motsoaledi, health minister, admitted the funding cuts had caused problems, but strongly denied suggestions the country's anti-HIV campaign was close to collapse.
He said: 'Under no circumstances will we allow this massive work conducted over more than a decade and a half to collapse and go up in smoke because of what President Trump has done.'
Modelling released in March has already predicted the cuts could trigger soaring rates of global HIV infections and millions of deaths.
There could be between 4.4m to 10.8m additional new HIV infections by the end of this decade in low-and-middle income countries according to the forecasts published in the Lancet journal.
Regular testing of HIV patients is considered vital for managing the long-running outbreak because it tells whether treatment is keeping the virus in check, and whether it is sufficiently suppressed to prevent it spreading to others.
Testing is particularly important in pregnant women who are at risk of passing on the infection during childbirth.
Public health experts warn that with less testing, fewer people who are at risk of transmitting the virus will be identified.
Missing a test can also indicate that a patient has dropped out of the system and may be missing treatment.
Trump froze many foreign aid programmes by executive order in the early days of his administration.
South Africa was doubly hit, as he also targeted aid to the country for allegedly discriminating against white people. He falsely said white land was being seized by the government.
South Africa did not rely on America for its anti-HIV drugs but did rely on the United States President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) to pay 15,000 health workers.
These workers did HIV testing and counselling in hotspots and checked up on patients who had dropped off their medication.
'These are shocking figures, with profound implications for maternal and child health across the country,' said Francois Venter, executive director of the Ezintsha Research Centre in Johannesburg.
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