Africa: 'What Is the Plan?' - Inside South Africa's Reckoning With a Post-PEPFAR World
Healthcare workers in South Africa are expressing concern over the impact of reduced funding from the U.S. PEPFAR program on HIV treatment services. The reduction in support is reportedly leading to longer wait times and staffing shortages in public clinics.
Why it matters
The potential decline in HIV care quality in South Africa highlights the fragility of global health programs that rely heavily on international funding.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - "What is the plan before we get back to a stage where we are burying people?"
When Belinda Tewela, a South African healthcare worker, took the microphone at the International AIDS Conference in Rio de Janeiro, she did not speak about billion-dollar funding gaps or international policy.
"The waiting time has increased. The shortages of staff in facilities are real," said Tewela, who also lives with HIV. "There were people from organisations like Anova who filled a huge gap, and now they're gone. That results in the quality of healthcare services that we're getting declining."
For Tewela, the impact of shrinking United States support for HIV programmes is no longer an abstract policy debate. It is visible every time she visits a clinic, where longer queues, fewer healthcare workers and growing pressure on public health facilities have become the new reality.
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