PEPFAR Freeze Imperils Lives & Threatens HIV Prevention Progress
A clinic in Johannesburg, South Africa, disperses anti-HIV medications. Its work has been supported by the U.S. PEPFAR program. The Trump administration has now put PEPFAR funding — and activities — on hold.
Foto24/Gallo Images via Getty Images/Gallo Images Editorial
In the mid-1990’s, when highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) became widely available in the United States, Cascade AIDS Project’s work set out on a new course. HIV, while far from over, was no longer a death sentence for those with treatment, and we were able to shift our focus toward ensuring members of our community had access to this life-saving medication. These developments paved the way for a new HIV prevention framework which remains to this day: Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U). A new phase in the global fight to end the AIDS epidemic had begun. Now, actions by the Trump administration threaten to roll back decades of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
On January 25th, it was announced that PEPFAR, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, would be paused to ensure compliance with “America First” foreign aid policy. But AIDS, like all epidemics, knows no borders. At CAP, we know that our fates are inextricably tied to the fates of all people living with and at risk of contracting HIV, and we unequivocally condemn the Trump administration’s short-sighted and dangerous weaponization of global disease control for political ends.
The global roll-out of HIV treatment has saved millions of lives. Per UNAIDS, an estimated 16.5 million AIDS-related deaths have been averted since 2001. The creation of PEPFAR by George W. Bush with strong bipartisan support across ten U.S. congresses and four presidential administrations, has been a key component of this global rollout. PEPFAR has been called the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history. The PEPFAR program operates in 54 countries, providing critical life-saving daily services for people living with HIV. More than 20 million people living with HIV—including 550,000 children under 15—depend on daily services and medication provided with support of the PEPFAR program to stay alive. UNAIDS estimates that if PEPFAR isn’t reauthorized during the current administration there could be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths—that’s 6.3 million preventable AIDS-related deaths. To cut PEPFAR is to welcome back the spread of HIV.
People living with HIV are not expendable. CAP is committed to fighting at the local, state, and national levels for policies that protect the lives of people living with HIV and stemming the tide of the epidemic. We do so unapologetically, because SILENCE = DEATH.
