The Trump administration's decision to pause US foreign aid has "substantially disrupted" supply of HIV treatments in eight countries, which could soon run out of these life-saving medicines, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.
The global health agency said Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria and Ukraine could exhaust their supply of HIV treatments in the coming months.
"The disruptions to HIV programs could undo 20 years of progress," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference. He added that this could lead to over 10-million additional HIV cases and 3-million HIV-related deaths.
Efforts to tackle HIV, polio, malaria and tuberculosis have been impacted by the US foreign aid pause implemented by President Donald Trump shortly after he took office in January.
The WHO-coordinated Global Measles and Rubella Laboratory Network, with over 700 sites worldwide, also faces imminent shutdown, the agency said. This comes at a time when measles is making a comeback in the US.