The Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says millions of lives across the continent are at risk due to abrupt cuts in U.S. and European development aid, threatening to reverse decades of progress in global health.
The Director-General of the Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya made this known at the bi-weekly media webinar news conference on Thursday.
”As the U.S. Congress prepares to debate the reauthorisation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) on March 25, millions of lives in Africa hang in the balance,” he said.
Kaseya has sounded the alarm on what he called a “total disaster” for the continent’s health sector.
He said that 30 per cent of Africa’s health expenditure comes from Official Development Assistance (ODA).
”This year, the ODA funding has been slashed by 70 per cent, dropping from 81 billion dollars to just 25 billion dollars.
“Beyond HIV/AIDS, the funding crisis comes amid a surge in disease outbreaks across Africa—up 41 per cent in the past two years.
“In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the loss of USAID funding has disrupted Mpox testing, leading to a 16 per cent drop in confirmed cases not because the outbreak is under control, but due to a lack of resources to track it.
“The turnaround time for testing has also increased in many regions due to logistical challenges,” he said.
He said that the aid cuts threaten to undo 20 years of progress in maternal and child health, infectious disease control, and poverty reduction.
With donor funding disappearing, he said, the entire health systems could collapse, and millions more Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty.
“Africa CDC projects that 39 million people will be driven into poverty as a direct result of these funding cuts,” he said.
He said that health financing remains a persistent challenge.
“Only two African countries Botswana and Rwanda meet the Abuja Declaration’s commitment to spend 15 per cent of GDP on health
“Only 16 countries have national health financing plans in place. Without external funding, many nations are struggling to keep their health services afloat,” he said.
According to him, as Washington debates the future of PEPFAR, African leaders are scrambling for alternatives.
Kaseya said he has been meeting with ministers and the African Union to push for increased domestic investment in health and explore “blended financing” strategies involving the private sector.
”One innovative proposal involves leveraging the 95 billion dollars in annual remittances from the African diaspora, potentially through a taxation model to fund healthcare initiatives.
”With limited time to act, I will be meetig with members of the Trump administration, PEPFAR officials, and U.S. lawmakers to make the case for continued aid,” he said.
Two days after President Donald Trump’s executive order in late January declared a 90-day pause to all foreign assistance.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said the Trump administration’s decision to pause U.S. foreign aid has “substantially disrupted” supply of HIV treatments in eight countries, which could soon run out of these life-saving medicines.
The global health agency said that Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Ukraine could exhaust their supply of HIV treatments in the coming months.
The WHO said the U.S. has a “responsibility to ensure that if it withdraws direct funding for countries, it’s done in an orderly and humane way that allows them to find alternative sources of funding.
Funding shortages, the world health body said, could also force 80 per cent of its supported essential health care services in Afghanistan to close.
As of March 4, the WHO said, 167 health facilities had shut down due to funding shortages, and without urgent intervention, over 220 more facilities could close by June.
NAN
