PODCAST: Trump slashed HIV projects. Will the US kill the fund that fed them too?

• Chaos and devastation is the position that South African USAID-funded health projects find themselves in after the Trump administration closed them down overnight on February 26.
• But it wasn’t only them. There were 5,800 such projects around the world.
• The bigger question now is: what will happen to the US government’s Aids fund, Pepfar, where most of the money for these projects came from? Will that, too, close down?
• On March 25, the US Congress will vote to reauthorise Pepfar — or not. How will it vote?
• And will the US pull out of the Global Fund for HIV, TB and malaria?
• Mia Malan puts these questions to the 2022/2023 Pepfar head of staff, Jirair Ratevosian. He’s now a Hock infectious disease fellow at Duke University’s Global Health Institute and also the chief author of a report that explains how to lower Pepfar’s costs by 20% over five years.

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.