The Trump administration has been moved to stop the supply of rescue medicines for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as medical supplies for newborn babies, in USAID -backed countries across the globe, a memorandum reviewed by Reuters showed.
On Tuesday, contractors and partners working with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began receiving such memoranda to stop the work immediately, sources said.
The mass is part of a wider freezing in aid and US funds established since Trump took office on January 20, while the programs have been revised.
Such a memorandum went to Chenics, a large US counseling firm that works with USAID to supply medication for a variety of conditions around the world.
Memory covers the work of the firm in HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as contraception and health supplies of mother and children, a USAID source and a former USAID official told Reuters.
“This is catastrophic,” said Atul Gawande, the former head of Global Health in USAID who left the agency this month. “Donated drug supplies by holding 20 million people living with HIV alive. This stops today. ”
Chenics and USAID did not respond immediately to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Disruptions in the treatment of diseases mean that patients risk getting sick as well as in the case of HIV in particular, transmitting the virus to others.
It also means that drug resistant strains can occur, Gawande said.
He said other partners had received reports that would say they would not be able to send medicines to clinics even if they had them in stock or open the clinics if they were funded by the US
This includes organizations working with 6.5 million orphans and HIV vulnerable children in 23 countries, he said.
Trump ordered a 90-day pause in the aid of foreign development on January 20, the day he took the oath, awaiting evaluations of efficiency and consistency with US foreign policy.
His administration has also left about 60 senior career officials in USAID on the break, sources familiar with the issue told Reuters on Monday.
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