MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Trump administration's order to stop all U.S. foreign aid last week has immediately affected people with HIV/AIDS. Clinics around the world, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, rely on U.S. funds to provide drugs and treatments to people battling the disease. NPR global health correspondent Fatma Tanis is covering the story. She's with us now. Good morning, Fatma.
FATMA TANIS, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So what are you hearing from HIV clinics?
TANIS: Well, we're hearing that the clinics that people went to to get their medications for HIV/AIDS have closed down. This is happening in South Africa, in Tanzania, in other countries, too. You can even see on Google Maps, some of these clinics have now temporarily closed in their description. For one example, a clinic in South Africa posted a message on X yesterday telling people to, quote, "Visit the clinic before 4 p.m. to collect your medications" before they closed their doors.
This is happening in U.S.-supported clinics all over sub-Saharan Africa, according to an HIV access group called Health GAP. And so people who are using these services who depend on a regular course of AIDS medication to keep them from spreading the disease, they don't have access to these drugs now.
MARTIN: So back up for a minute, Fatma. I'm thinking some people might be surprised that the U.S. is so involved in making HIV/AIDS treatment available around the world. Say a little bit about how that happened.
TANIS: Well, the U.S. has been a very generous provider of AIDS assistance programs around the world through an effort called PEPFAR. That's the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Response. It was started under President George W. Bush. It's a program with a lot of bipartisan support, and it's credited with having saved at least 25 million lives. Now, those clinics we just talked about all received support from PEPFAR.
And PEPFAR is funded through the State Department, and when the Trump administration froze foreign aid and issued a stop work order on existing programs, that applied to PEPFAR as well.
MARTIN: OK. So say more. How did that all play out?
TANIS: So big organizations that partner with the U.S. on HIV/AIDS, as well as NGOs and clinics working in countries where the disease is common, they have all received orders from the U.S. to stop work immediately. Now, Atul Gawande confirmed this as well. He was an assistant administrator in Global Health during the Biden presidency. He told Melody Schreiber, a freelance journalist who contributed to our reporting on this, that clinics have, quote, "stopped distributing medications," and PEPFAR's central information systems were shut down.
The Trump administration says the freeze will be in effect for about three months. Now, late last night, the State Department added a waiver to that freeze and a memo that was obtained by NPR. The waiver allows money to continue flowing for core life-saving medications. But it's unclear what that means and if AIDS drugs would be included. So there's more to know on this.
MARTIN: So if the freeze does cover AIDS medications, if it's determined that those aren't, quote, "core lifesaving medications," as you just described it, how many people would be affected?
TANIS: You know, Michel, 20 million people around the world are relying on PEPFAR-funded programs. That could be for medications to prevent the disease or treat it, but also nutritional support for pregnant women and people living with AIDs. And at least 220,000 patients are visiting these clinics daily. And now, here's why these drugs are so important. Taking them consistently keeps the viral load down.
It helps prevent the spreading of the disease. And if you stop taking your medications, within a few weeks, the virus can multiply, leading to illness. It can also spread more easily. And also it leads to the virus developing resistance. Now, I've been speaking to sources who've worked on PEPFAR and they're very concerned by what's happening. One person who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing their job told me that, quote, "People are going to die in other countries because of the stop work order."
MARTIN: That is NPR's Fatma Tanis. Fatma, thank you.
TANIS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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