Nine million years: the astonishing cost of Trump’s AIDS plan, for just two countries
New York — US President Donald Trump’s plan to cut foreign aid supporting HIV/AIDS treatment could cost 9-million years of lost life in SA and Ivory Coast, according to a global study released on Monday. In the first study to measure the impact of cuts in global investment in HIV care in terms of health and costs, scientists found sky-rocketing deaths in the African nations would far outweigh savings. SA has the highest prevalence of HIV worldwide, with 19% of its adult population carrying the virus in 2015, according to UNAIDS, with a total of 7-million HIV-infected people. Ivory Coast counted 460,000 HIV-infected people in that same year. Trump’s proposed budget for 2018, made public in May, envisions cuts to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) programme, a cornerstone of US global health assistance, which supports HIV/AIDS treatment, testing and counselling for millions of people worldwide. Under Trump’s budget, which pursues his "America First" world view, an...
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