Patients with HIV/AIDS South Africa are worried about treatment

Hug was used to collect its antiretroviruses from the clinic funded by USAID in Central Johannesburg.

But when President Trump’s reductions were announced earlier this year, she and thousands of other HIV patients across South Africa suddenly encountered an uncertain future.

Hugo was lucky, the clinic where she received the medicine that helps suppress her symptoms contacted her before she closed.

“I was one of the people who were able to get the medicine in bulk. I usually collect a three -month recipe. But before my clinic clinic, they gave me a medication for nine months.”

In September, it will end with antiretroviruses (ARV) and then plans to go to a local public hospital.

Former sex worker, 54-year-old, found out that she had infected HIV after she had left the industry.

Ten years ago, she received a cat cough, and initially found it tuberculosis. She turned to the doctor who told her that she had a breast infection and treated her.

But if the treatment failed, she went to the clinic to get a HIV test.

“By the time I had already believed that I was HIV-positive and I said the nurse.”

She was right, and she has been on ARV since then. We do not use her real name at her request.

She is currently working as a project coordinator for NGOs.

“We help pregnant sex workers get their ARV, provide their children for HIV-negative. We also visit at home to make sure that mothers take medication and care for their children when they go for monthly checks.”

Many HIV-positive sex workers in South Africa relied on private clinics funded by the US Government, USAID to get their recipes and treatments.

But most facilities closed after US President Donald Trump has reduced most foreign benefits earlier this year.

Hugo believes that many sex workers may refuse to attend public hospitals for their ARV if they can no longer get them out of clinics.

“The problem with attending public hospitals is a time to get maintenance in these facilities, you have to arrive at 4 or 5am, and they can spend the whole day waiting for medication. For sex workers, time is money,” says Hug.

She adds that she recently went to a local hospital with friends to register her data and set up relationships with employees.

“The nurse who attended us was very rude. She told us that there was nothing special about sex workers.”

She believes that this can lead to many sex workers who do not have medication, “especially since their hospital files contain a lot of personal information, and the concern that the nurses sometimes in these local clinics are not always the most sensitive in the fight against such information.”

In a report published on Thursday, the UN body responsible for the fight against HIV/AIDS does not rule out the US, but says sharp cuts a number “phenomenal progress” in the fight against the risk of illness.

“New HIV infections have decreased by 40% since 2010, and 4.4 million children have been protected from HIV’s acquisition since 2000. More than 26 million lives have been saved,” said Unid, warning that if the world is not valid, there may be an additional six million new infections and four million AIDS.

UNIDS stated that the annual number of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths were reduced to the lowest level of more than 30 years.

All data published in the report begin from the US and other donors who have reduced the financing earlier this year. But this emphasizes what progress can be lost as a result of these cuts.

South of the Sahara in Africa is a decrease in the number of new infections by 56%. The region is still an epider epicenter – half of all new infections were from the continent last year. But four African countries – Lesota, Malawi, Rwanda and Zimbabwe – were on the way to reaching 90% of new infections by 2030 compared to 2010.

Another success story for Africa has become the performance of antiretroviruses that help suppress HIV symptoms. Along with other medical achievements in this field, they helped to increase their lives in Africa south from 56 years in 2010 to 62 years in 2024.

The turn began when in 2003, US President George W. Bush launched an ambitious HIV/AIDS program, saying it would serve as a “strategic and moral interest”.

Known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS (PEPFAR), this has led to an investment of more than 100 billion dollars ($ 74 billion) in the world’s HIV/AIDS response – the greatest commitment to any nation to solve a united illness in the world.

In South Africa, about 7.7 million people living with HIV, the highest number in the world, According to Unid.

About 5.9 million of them receive antiretroviral treatment, which leads to AIDS death by 66% since 2010, the UN agency adds.

The South African government states that PEPFAR funding has contributed about 17% in the HIV/AIDS program. The money was used for various projects, including for the management of mobile clinics to facilitate treatment for patients.

Trump administration reduction has caused concern that the infection can break out again.

“I think we will start to see an increase in the number of HIV infections, the number of cases of tuberculosis, the number of other infectious diseases,” says prof. Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Yohanesburg, BBC.

“And we will start seeing the cancellation that was essentially a true success story. We treated some of these things.”

Hug notes that treatment is a matter of life and death, especially for vulnerable populations such as sex workers.

“People do not want default on their ARV. They are afraid they will die if they do not get access to them.

The sections also affected research aimed at finding HIV vaccine and AIDS.

“There is a long-term impact, which is that we will not get new HIV vaccines,” adds Professor Morris.

“We are not going to keep the viruses from above. Even with new viruses that may seem, we will not have an observation infrastructure that we once had.”

South Africa was one of the world leaders in HIV research. Many medicines that help prevent the virus and benefit people around the world have been tested in South Africa.

This includes Prep (preliminary impact prevention), a medicine that prevents HIV-negative people from catching the virus.

Another breakthrough preventive drug released this year, Lenacapavir, an injection that was taken twice a year, and which provides full protection against HIV, was also sued in South Africa.

A small group of scientists are still working on a vaccine for HIV at the University University University University University University University.

They are part of a brilliant consortium, laboratories operating in eight African countries to develop a vaccine for the virus.

“We have developed a vaccine test to find out how well it works, and then we would judge people,” says BBC Abdullah Eli, Associate Professor of the University of Wits in his laboratory.

“The plan was to conduct tests in Africa based on Africans, because we want research to actually benefit our community as well as all humanity.”

But the reduction in US funding has pushed its work in doubt.

“When the order came to the stop, it meant that we needed to stop everything. Only some of us were able to get additional funding so that we could continue our work. It may have returned us for months, probably even a year,” says Professor Eli.

The laboratory lacks funding for clinical trials scheduled for the end of this year.

“This is a very big loss for South Africa and the continent. This means that any potential research leaving Africa must be checked in Europe or the United States,” says Professor Eli.

In June, universities addressed the government to rescue 4.6 billion South African rend ($ 260 million; £ 190 million) over the next three years to cover part of the financing lost from the United States.

“We are supporting support because South Africa is conducting HIV research, but it does not lead to itself. It has the consequences of the practice and policies of the whole globe,” says D -Retiv Matuta, head of South Africa’s universities.

South Africa’s health minister Aaron Motao Leads announced on Wednesday, which was provided with some alternative research financing.

The Bill and Melinda Gates and Trust Wellcome Foundation agreed to donate 100 million. Rand with immediate effect, while the government will make 400 million available over the next three years, he said.

This will lead to a total of 600 million renders, which is below 4.6 billion Rand, requested by researchers.

As for Hugo, she hoped that as long as she was elderly, HIV/AIDS would be found, but it is now less optimistic.

“I look after a nine-year-old girl. I want to live while I can continue to take care of him,” she says BBC.

“Now it’s not just a problem, we have to think about how it will affect the next generation of women and young people.”