Health experts warn of as many as 500,000 deaths over 10 years from Trump's cuts
President Donald Trump's cuts to USAID could mean as many as 500,000 people die over the next 10 years, one expert predicted.
Al Jazeera cited health experts and aid organizations saying that ending many of the USAID programs that help those with HIV/AIDS "in many African countries could lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent."
In South Africa alone, an official at the Desmond Tutu HIV Center told Al Jazeera that cuts to U.S. funding could cause 500,000 deaths over 10 years.
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Trump has ushered in massive government cuts, including international humanitarian aid that funds efforts to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and help those who already have the disease.
Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) through an executive order and assigned billionaire South African Elon Musk the task of making the cuts. As a result, thousands of government employees worldwide lost their jobs and health insurance.
Some USAID employees were U.S. workers in other countries who were working to stop the spread of disease, help feed starving children, and collect critical data.
Earlier this month, WIRED reported one of the programs the administration cut was funding for drugs that help stop the spread of HIV/AIDS from mother to baby.
“At a minimum, 300 babies that wouldn’t have had HIV, now do,” one USAID worker estimated.
"On Thursday came news that the Trump administration had decided to stop funding UNAIDS, the UN’s HIV/AIDS programme that serves communities around the world," the report also said.
UNAIDS funds work in 55 countries.
“We will see lives lost. In excess of half a million unnecessary deaths will occur because of the loss of the funding, and up to a half a million new infections," said Linda-Gail Bekker, chief operating officer of the Desmond Tutu HIV Center.