Fate of 70,000 people living with HIV at risk, says activist
She called on the policymakers to reconsider the funding freeze and prioritize investments in HIV care and prevention
By Anak Dut
The National Empowerment of Positive Women United (NEPWU) said the lives of about 70,000 individuals living with HIV in South Sudan are under threat due to the freeze of USAID.
The Executive Director of NEPWU, Evelyn Letio said the abrupt halt in funding by U.S. President Donald Trump has jeopardized essential services, threatening to reverse years of progress made in the fight against the HIV epidemic.
The health activist called on the policymakers to reconsider the funding freeze and prioritize investments in HIV care prevention.
“Within this short of the stop work order, 1500 people living with HIV have missed appointments, drugs, and their treatment and they are interrupted in treatment,” she said.
“Similarly, the community outreach workers who were delivering ARVs, collecting viral load samples, and providing continuous adherence counseling in the community as far as 25 km from the ARTC centres have been laid off.”
Evelyn stressed that most of the children living with and affected by HIV are not going to school and lack emotional support, which she said might result in catastrophe.
“As the Network of People Living with HIV in South Sudan, this is a call to our government and an eye opener to not depend only on foreign aid.”
“We urge the government to take immediate action to fill the gap left by the freeze on foreign aid, inject more domestic funds to strengthen the fight against the HIV epidemic, take full control of the citizens and improve health centers providing full treatment packages to its citizens,” she remarked.
Onek Benson, the Program Manager of National Empowerment of Positive Women United stated that there are nearly 83 volunteers who are affected in the different locations of the country, stressing the importance of domestic funding, especially at this critical time of the aid freeze.
Onek added that some of the people who have been under medication have now left for unknown locations where they can’t trace them and their health is also at risk.
He stated that now that the medication has been frozen which might lead to a high spread of the virus.
Early this month, just a week after US President Donald Trump halted USAID services, government and health officials in Western Equatoria State raised an alarm over the huge impact the move was already having in the state, which has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the greater Equatoria region at 6.8%, compared to 3.1% in Central Equatoria and 4.0% in Eastern Equatoria.
Henry Biata Nzari, a PMTCT clinician at CMMB Yambio, confirmed that all services had been paused.
“We were instructed to stop all ongoing services immediately. Before closing, we informed all county health departments about the development,” he said.
He also, urged the government to intervene urgently and find possible solution to the vulnerable people who had been affected by the US directive.
“The community is highly vulnerable. If nothing is done, this suspension could have catastrophic consequences.”
Among those directly affected is Lillian Suzan, a woman living with HIV, who discovered the hospital had stopped providing services.
“I only have 11 pills left, enough for two weeks. If the government and partners don’t restore the program, we will die,” she warned.
While the freeze of the widely impactful USAID services has had on the continent, disrupting healthcare services and cutting thousands of jobs, some African countries, including in the East African Community, where South Sudan is a member, have started exploring stop-gap measures to cushion their vulnerable citizens from the wide-ranging effects.
