South African HIV/AIDS healthcare providers have been scrambling for survival since US President Donald Trump issued a freeze on foreign aid.
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“Short-term, I hope that some money can flow so that medium- and long- term, we can make other plans,” said Dawie Nel, the director at OUT, whose Engage Men’s Health clinic in Johannesburg has a note fixed to the gate that announces it is “temporarily closed”. It had been banking on $2 million in US funds to continue until September to provide its 2 000 clients with HIV treatment and another 4 000 clients with the preventative drug PrEP.Around 14 percent of South Africans, around 8.45 million people, were HIV positive in 2022, according to government statistics, one of the highest rates in the world.
The Wits University’s Reproductive Health and HIV Institute has posted on its Facebook page that its Key Population Programme clinics for sex workers and transgender people were “closed until further notice”. The country may however be able to leverage its presidency of the G20 this year to “lead the Africa bloc into collective discussions with Western countries” to secure resources, he said.
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