South Africa accepts $115 million US plan to support HIV care
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has accepted the offer of a beneficiary of the project and has changed his shirt for an HIV-Positive T-shirt. See Zackie (Zackie Achmat of the Treatment Action Campaign, a South African NGO {TAC},) just behind.
South Africa welcomed a $115 million US-funded bridge plan on October 16th that will help the country treat and reduce the spread of HIV, according to The Independent via AP.
This deal follows a previous aid cut from the US that jeopardised South Africa’s HIV treatment programme and led to the forced closure of free clinics who had to refuse treatment to HIV-infected patients.
The US was previously known to have contributed over $400 million to South Africa’s HIV treatment programme, as well as their non-governmental organisations. The U.S President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was initially created to help mitigate the severity of HIV and AIDS, being ascribed to having saved over 25 millions lives affected by HIV across the last two decades.
South Africa has the highest number of people suffering with HIV in the world. As such, it has become a pivotal nation in HIV research, looking at prevention, treatment and care for those effected by the illness.
This research could be seen as critical in light of the recent escalating HIV epidemics in areas of the Middle East and North Africa. The US cutting their funding to South Africa’s HIV treatment programme comes amid criticisms towards president Donald Trump, who has allegedly contributed to the worsening of HIV in parts of Ethiopia.
Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, Minister in the Presidency of South Africa, said that the cabinet has accepted a $115 million bridge plan from the US, explaining that South Africa was not initially provided with the minimum warning period to prepare, that countries are often given with budget cuts.
She explained that the current bridge plan from the US mitigates these issues and reinforces a strong bilateral relationship between the two countries.
The Independent via AP, Maghrebi.org
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