Over 2,000 HIV cases may surface daily after US aid cuts: UN

KABUL (Pajhwok): More than 2,000 AIDS/HIV cases could be registered in the world every day if the United States stops aid, the United Nations (UN) said on Tuesday.

Reuters quoted UNAIDS agency as saying: “There could be 2,000 new HIV infections a day across the world and a ten-fold increase in related deaths if funding frozen by the United States is not restored or replaced”.

But the disruption to health funding and the impact on broader services were having a devastating impact on people living with HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Geneva.

She said: “This sudden withdrawal of US funding has been shutting down many clinics, laying off thousands of health workers … All this means that we expect to see new infections rising. UNAIDS has estimated that we could see 2,000 new infections every day”.

Byanyima explained if funding from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) did not resume at the end of the 90-day pause, there would be increase the number of AIDs-deaths.

Since inauguration, US President Donald Trump has suspended almost all US foreign aid.

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