Latest news with #FoundationforAIDSResearch
Boston Globe
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Stars convene for amfAR gala to raise millions for AIDS research
During the meal guests were also entertained with musical performances from Ciara, who opened the night, Adam Lambert and headlining the dinner with Duran Duran. Guest shimmied from their tables to the front of the room to stand in front of the stage and sing along to hits like 'Notorious' and 'View to a Kill' (which wouldn't be the only James Bond reference of the night). The sale included artwork from Brody — sold for 375,000 euros ($423,755) with lunch with the star thrown in — and Franco — (sold for 325,000 euros ($367,254) also with a lunch offered with the winning bid. Another highlight was a May 2025 George Condo painting that raised 1.15 million euros ($1.26 million). Advertisement Lee came to the stage and offered a surprise lot, a walk-on part in his next movie. Part of the way through the bidding he added tickets to sit next to him courtside at a New York Nicks game next season, driving the price up to 400,000 euros ($452,005). Advertisement The fashion show is a regular feature of the auction curated by Carine Roitfeld, this year was Bond-inspired and saw 27 models turn the middle of the dinning room into a catwalk as they paraded through the room waving at guests they recognized and posing for photos on route. The collection made 450,000 euros ($508,505) for the charity, auctioned off as one complete lot. The Foundation for AIDS Research, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and advocacy. Since 1985, amfAR has raised nearly $950 million (841 million euros) in support of its programs and has awarded more than 3,800 grants to research teams worldwide.
Al-Ahram Weekly
06-02-2025
- Health
- Al-Ahram Weekly
'People are going to die': USAID cuts create panic in Africa - Health - Life & Style
Trump's decision to freeze foreign assistance has sent aid staff in Africa into "panic mode", with even HIV experimental treatment programmes stopped. Trump last week ordered a suspension of foreign assistance, while his billionaire ally Elon Musk has boasted he is putting the vast US humanitarian agency USAID "through the woodchipper". That has included a 90-day suspension of all work by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which alone supports more than 20 million HIV patients and 270,000 health workers, according to an analysis from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Among its programmes, PEPFAR currently provides anti-retroviral treatments to 679,936 pregnant women living with HIV both for their own health and to prevent transmission to their children, the analysis said. "During a 90-day stoppage, we estimate that this would mean 135,987 babies acquiring HIV," it said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been named acting head of USAID, has said "life-saving treatments" would be exempt from the freeze. But frontline workers in Africa say facilities have already shut down "As we speak nothing is going on," said Aghan Daniel, head of a USAID-funded team of Kenyan science journalists providing information on health issues. He told AFP research projects had abruptly stopped, even for patients midway through experimental treatment programmes. He highlighted the MOSAIC (Maximizing Options to Advance Informed Choice for HIV Prevention) project, funded under PEPFAR, which tests new drugs and vaccines. "The people who were the study candidates are going to have adverse health results because the study has just stopped all of a sudden," Daniel told AFP. His own team of six science journalists have all lost their jobs, too. "A lot of people are going to die because of lack of knowledge," he said. "One of the key approaches to bringing down HIV numbers in Africa is through provision of information. This includes raising awareness about sex, as well as treatments like lenacapavir (an antiretroviral), pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis and other drugs." Founded in 1961, USAID has an annual budget of more than $40 billion, used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, especially in poor countries. It is not just HIV programmes that have shuttered. A staff member of a USAID-funded programme in Kenya said Trump's decision had landed "like a bombshell", throwing people "into panic mode". "We will have more people succumbing to these diseases like tuberculosis, cholera," the source said. The charity itself is now unable to pay rent or salaries, with employees put on compulsory unpaid leave. At a USAID office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, AFP saw people clearing out their desks on Wednesday. Despite Rubio's waiver, "a lot of uncertainty remains," said a staff member at an NGO working on food security in conflict zones, who asked to remain anonymous. "What constitutes life-saving work? Are vaccines life-saving, or nutrition programmes for the severely malnourished?" he said. "Stopping some of these programmes even for a few days could make the difference between life and death for some of the people we serve," he said. Like others, Daniel said the impact could have been tempered with adequate notice. "We have too many emergencies in the world -– we didn't need to add another one," he said. Short link:
Khaleej Times
05-02-2025
- Health
- Khaleej Times
'People are going to die': USAID cuts create panic in Africa
President Donald Trump's decision to freeze foreign assistance has sent aid staff in Africa into "panic mode", with even HIV experimental treatment programmes stopped dead in their tracks. Trump last week ordered a suspension of foreign assistance, while his billionaire ally Elon Musk has boasted he is putting the vast US humanitarian agency USAID "through the woodchipper". That has included a 90-day suspension of all work by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which alone supports more than 20 million HIV patients and 270,000 health workers, according to an analysis from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Among its programmes, PEPFAR currently provides anti-retroviral treatments to 679,936 pregnant women living with HIV both for their own health and to prevent transmission to their children, the analysis said. "During a 90-day stoppage, we estimate that this would mean 135,987 babies acquiring HIV," it said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been named acting head of USAID, has said "life-saving treatments" would be exempt from the freeze. But frontline workers in Africa say facilities have already shut down. "As we speak nothing is going on," said Aghan Daniel, head of a USAID-funded team of Kenyan science journalists providing information on health issues. He told AFP research projects had abruptly stopped, even for patients midway through experimental treatment programmes. He highlighted the MOSAIC (Maximising Options to Advance Informed Choice for HIV Prevention) project, funded under PEPFAR, which tests new drugs and vaccines. "The people who were the study candidates are going to have adverse health results because the study has just stopped all of a sudden," Daniel told AFP. His own team of six science journalists have all lost their jobs, too. "A lot of people are going to die because of lack of knowledge," he said. "One of the key approaches to bringing down HIV numbers in Africa is through provision of information. This includes raising awareness about sex, as well as treatments like lenacapavir (an antiretroviral), pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis and other drugs." Founded in 1961, USAID has an annual budget of more than $40 billion, used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, especially in poor countries. It is not just HIV programmes that have shuttered. A staff member of a USAID-funded programme in Kenya said Trump's decision had landed "like a bombshell", throwing people "into panic mode". "We will have more people succumbing to these diseases like tuberculosis, cholera," the source said. The charity itself is now unable to pay rent or salaries, with employees put on compulsory unpaid leave. At a USAID office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, AFP saw people clearing out their desks on Wednesday. Despite Rubio's waiver, "a lot of uncertainty remains," said a staff member at an NGO working on food security in conflict zones, who asked to remain anonymous. "What constitutes life-saving work? Are vaccines life-saving, or nutrition programmes for the severely malnourished?" he said. "Stopping some of these programmes even for a few days could make the difference between life and death for some of the people we serve," he said. Like others, Daniel said the impact could have been tempered with adequate notice. "We have too many emergencies in the world — we didn't need to add another one," he said.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'People are going to die': USAID cuts create panic in Africa
President Donald Trump's decision to freeze foreign assistance has sent aid staff in Africa into "panic mode", with even HIV experimental treatment programmes stopped dead in their tracks. Trump last week ordered a suspension of foreign assistance, while his billionaire ally Elon Musk has boasted he is putting the vast US humanitarian agency USAID "through the woodchipper". That has included a 90-day suspension of all work by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which alone supports more than 20 million HIV patients and 270,000 health workers, according to an analysis from the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR). Among its programmes, PEPFAR currently provides anti-retroviral treatments to 679,936 pregnant women living with HIV both for their own health and to prevent transmission to their children, the analysis said. "During a 90-day stoppage, we estimate that this would mean 135,987 babies acquiring HIV," it said. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has been named acting head of USAID, has said "life-saving treatments" would be exempt from the freeze. But frontline workers in Africa say facilities have already shut down. "As we speak nothing is going on," said Aghan Daniel, head of a USAID-funded team of Kenyan science journalists providing information on health issues. He told AFP research projects had abruptly stopped, even for patients midway through experimental treatment programmes. He highlighted the MOSAIC (Maximizing Options to Advance Informed Choice for HIV Prevention) project, funded under PEPFAR, which tests new drugs and vaccines. "The people who were the study candidates are going to have adverse health results because the study has just stopped all of a sudden," Daniel told AFP. His own team of six science journalists have all lost their jobs, too. "A lot of people are going to die because of lack of knowledge," he said. "One of the key approaches to bringing down HIV numbers in Africa is through provision of information. This includes raising awareness about sex, as well as treatments like lenacapavir (an antiretroviral), pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis and other drugs." - 'Life and death' - Founded in 1961, USAID has an annual budget of more than $40 billion, used to support development, health and humanitarian programmes around the world, especially in poor countries. It is not just HIV programmes that have shuttered. A staff member of a USAID-funded programme in Kenya said Trump's decision had landed "like a bombshell", throwing people "into panic mode". "We will have more people succumbing to these diseases like tuberculosis, cholera," the source said. The charity itself is now unable to pay rent or salaries, with employees put on compulsory unpaid leave. At a USAID office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, AFP saw people clearing out their desks on Wednesday. Despite Rubio's waiver, "a lot of uncertainty remains," said a staff member at an NGO working on food security in conflict zones, who asked to remain anonymous. "What constitutes life-saving work? Are vaccines life-saving, or nutrition programmes for the severely malnourished?" he said. "Stopping some of these programmes even for a few days could make the difference between life and death for some of the people we serve," he said. Like others, Daniel said the impact could have been tempered with adequate notice. "We have too many emergencies in the world -– we didn't need to add another one," he said. er/jhb
