Latest news with #SophyMoatshe
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
After US aid cuts, data shows HIV testing drops in South Africa
STORY: The testing and monitoring of HIV patients in South Africa has significantly fallen, previously unpublished government data has shown. That's since, and - according to four HIV experts - appears to be because of, a U.S. cut in aid that funded health workers and clinics. "Wow, people, they're going to die. Really. People, they're going to die." That's Sophy Moatshe, an HIV activist and community leader in the Johannesburg township of Diepsloot. South Africa has the world's highest burden of HIV; around 8 million people, or one-in-five adults, live with the virus. But Moatshe said it can be hard to get HIV patients to seek care because of stigma. The U.S. was funding 17% of South Africa's HIV budget before President Donald Trump's cuts. That paid for resources like, for example, the salaries of 15,000 healthcare workers under the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. Those healthcare workers carried out tests and counseling and followed up with patients. PEPFAR funding also supported NGO-run clinics which have now closed. Having frozen many foreign aid programs, Trump has reinstated some lifesaving assistance - including parts of PEPFAR. But he's also targeted South Africa specifically - cutting all funding to the country via an executive order in February. In the last two months, according to data from South Africa's National Health Laboratory Service, viral load testing has fallen. It measures how much of the virus is in the blood of people living with HIV who are on anti-retroviral treatment. That checks if treatment is working and if the virus is sufficiently suppressed to prevent it from spreading to others. Viral load testing is down more than 21% for pregnant women, the data showed, while early infant diagnostic testing has dropped almost 20%. Epidemiologist Dvora Joseph Davey: "So if all of this testing is not getting done, we don't know what level of virus pregnant women have. We don't know how many infants are acquiring HIV. And unfortunately, all of these people are the most vulnerable in our society here. And so pregnant women and infants are at extreme risk of HIV infection, HIV transmission without PEPFAR and the government of South Africa's support." Amid Trump's 'America First' agenda, the long-term future of HIV-related U.S. assistance - in South Africa and indeed the rest of the world - remains unclear. The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for South Africa's Department of Health, given a summary of the testing data, said more analysis was needed. He added that South Africa already had challenges with patient retention and viral load testing before the aid cuts. However, HIV experts have been saying for months that the health ministry has been downplaying the impact of the funding loss. A drop in testing figures could be an early warning sign, they added, followed by a rise in new cases and deaths.
The Herald
14-05-2025
- Health
- The Herald
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
