Trump is endangering progress in the fight against HIV in Latin America

Trump is endangering progress in the fight against HIV in Latin America

It's been nearly 30 years since Rosember Lopez received a life-changing diagnosis: He was HIV positive. With then few government resources dedicated to supporting HIV patients in Mexico, Lopez joined advocacy groups to secure needed funding for medication to help him survive.

The fight for access to medicines

"It was very difficult for me in the first few years after my diagnosis," he told CNN. “We had to fight for access to medicine,” said Lopez, who was keeping an eye on himself and others affected by the disease. This experience inspired him to start his own organization in Tapachula, southern Mexico, to destigmatize HIV, supported by funding from the United States.

The threat of US politics

Today his organization is one of numerous aid groups throughout Latin America that are supported by the Limitation international aid from the Trump administration is in danger. The President's Emergency Plan to Fight AIDS (PEPFAR), a George W. Bush-era program with broad bipartisan support, has been severely affected by the U.S. government's actions. Relief organizations warn that stopping programs like PEPFAR could put millions of people at risk who would have to interrupt their HIV treatment, which could lead to a resurgence of HIV.

Help for HIV-positive people

Organizations like Lopez's support people living with HIV to gain access to antiretroviral medications that reduce the risk of transmission and give them the opportunity to live long, healthy lives. When Lopez heard about the aid freeze in late January, he worried not only about the future of his organization, A Helping Hand in the Fight Against AIDS (UMALCS), but also about the potential deaths that could result from a lack of HIV treatment.

The dangers of interrupting treatment

"It reminded me of the times when there was no support and I thought, 'What will happen now when we no longer have the support for antiretroviral treatments?'" he said.

PEPFAR has been a lifesaver for many people living with HIV and AIDS and has helped tens of millions of people worldwide since its inception, advocates say. But that one Freezing foreign aid, which included an immediate halt order on all U.S.-funded programs, has hit many aid groups hard. Although the State Department later issued a waiver for “life-saving” aid, some aid groups report that funding continues restricted be.

Growing concerns about patient health

Without constant treatment, Dr. Craig Spencer, an emergency medicine physician and professor at the Brown University School of Public Health, said that within a few weeks or months, "people who had their HIV well under control will become uncontrolled. People will be infected who previously would not have been able to transmit it." If PEPFAR is not renewed for the next four years and without other resources to combat HIV, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths could occur in the near future, a 400% increase, warned Christine Stegling, deputy executive director of UNAIDS.

The impact in Latin America

In Colombia, organizations like Red Somos, which provide HIV care to Venezuelan migrants, have been hit hard. According to David Marquez, the group's social policy coordinator, about 300 Venezuelan migrants with HIV cannot continue their treatment because it was carried out with PEPFAR support. “This could be dangerous for their lives,” Marquez said, adding that the organization is looking for other sources of funding.

“There won't be enough money for everyone,” fears Miguel Lopez, who was diagnosed with HIV ten years ago and founded the organization 'Más Que Tres Letras' to normalize public discussion about HIV in Colombia.

Necessary international support

In Haiti, the health organization Zanmi Lasante was founded by Dr. Alain Casseus was also severely affected by the aid freeze. Thousands of Haitians depend on their HIV care, but “we have to drastically reduce our activities,” Casseus reports. “If these health facilities no longer exist, people would have no medicine, no health care, nothing.”

Without sufficient funding, aid groups in Latin America are calling on the international community for support. “We are already feeling the impact as some U.S. organizations that funded our work in Mexico are now closing,” Lopez says of Mexico. “We urgently need international support to sustain our work.”