The 26th International AIDS Conference is currently underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
It will run until the 31st of July.
702/CapeTalk’s Africa Melane spoke to the Director of the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation, Professor Linda-Gail Bekker.
She said the world is not on track to eliminate AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
“As exciting as it was to see global leaders come together and renew their commitment, there’s a ton of work to be done before 2030,” said Bekker.
The US government’s decision to phase out funding has had a severe impact.
“In January of 2025, USAID was dismantled, and we really have seen, you know, the stoppage of very important funding to PEPFAR-funded countries, many of them in eastern and southern Africa but also involving other countries around the world. And this definitely does have an impact; there’s no doubt.”
She said in South Africa, PEPFAR will end in March of next year. “We will no longer receive any federal money for the HIV response,” said Bekker.
Bekker stressed that having the funding for 25 years has been amazing. “It’s saved so many, many lives, particularly in Africa. The impact is going to vary from country to country.
“But probably it’s going to be most felt in terms of primary prevention, because that often is the part that countries don’t, when the chips are down, they’ll put money into treatment because, obviously, lives need to be saved. But when it comes to prevention, that’s often thought of as a sort of add-on.
“And this is really important because if we’re going to see an end to HIV, we are going to have to prevent infections as much as we are going to need to treat people who are living with HIV.
“In addition, that research piece I think is really important. We found for South Africa at the moment, the inclusion of the stoppage of foreign aid has included the National Institutes of Health.
“So, we’re also not getting any grant money to do ongoing HIV and TB research in South Africa.”
Bekker said South Africa is being singled out in this regard.
“I think we need to understand what the government of South Africa will be doing.”
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