Johannesburg (AP) – On a hot evening in Johannesburg, this news spread like wildfire among sex workers: within 24 hours, many non -profit clinics provide free free HIV service President Donald Trump announced United States was reducing foreign aid,
Some live with South African people, or at risk, HIV supply is safe Life saving medicines At the right time. Others did not.
Half a year later, country with more people With HIV Struggling for its weakest treatment compared to any other. More than 63,000 people were being treated in 12 clinics across the country. Up to 220,000 people have faced disruption in their daily HIV medicine.
The government of South Africa has vowed that it will not let it happen America withdraws around $ 427 million Its HIV program in support, The largest in the world.
Sexual workers, as the weakest South African people, are as illegal as their work, and transgender people spoke to the associated press on the condition of not printing the names from families or communities for fear of vengeance. He described a new world of difficulty in obtaining preventive medicine for people at the risk of HIV medicine or HIV.
An HIV positive sex worker and a mother of three said that she was away from medicine for about four months after she was away from public hospitals, which the government’s health department says that it should not happen.
“The only thing I could think of was my children, and I am going to die, and how I am going to convince my children that I am sick because of the line of work I have chosen?” He said. The 37 -year -old said that he finally received a one -month drug supply from a mobile clinic in June, which was introduced after the funding cut. She did not know what she would do after that.
Another HIV positive sex worker said that he had resorted to illegally buying drugs on the black market, where the bullets have almost doubled.
The US has since released a limited exemption, which allows some life-saving HIV services to be resumed globally, but Most of us disintegration of foreign aid Has created anarchy. And for many affected many people, the loss has already been done.
Overall, experts warns hundreds of thousands New infections in next few Years in South Africa, and tens of thousand additional deaths, if aid cuts are not restored or covered by other means.
Got away from hospitals
A major challenge for those who have lost access to US-funded non-profit non-profit clinics, and are getting help elsewhere including public hospitals.
The 37 -year -old sex worker said, “I have tried three of them, and I have been denied treatment because I don’t have a referral letter from my previous clinic.”
Kate Ress, a public health expert at the Anova Health Institute in Johannesburg, said, while it is ideal for a transfer letter, it is not required and people cannot be overcome.
“But people in the clinic, whether the nurse, security guards, doctors, who really removes them, said Rise.
In response to AP questions, Foster Mohle, a spokesman of South Africa’s health department, said that he did not know anyone who had gone away and encouraged people to get into the nearest public health facility.
There is another challenge discrimination in public hospitals and clinics, especially for sex workers and transgender people.
A transgender woman said, “In the hospital, he said that he only presents those who are in a relationship with someone who is HIV positive and is trying to have a child.” He decided to buy medicine privately, proceeding with his mother to save money to bear money.
“I am not going back to the clinic, with people who are going to make fun of me, like I am a clown,” she said.
The Health Department did not answer questions on that issue.
Not everyone can take the risk of purchasing drugs privately or on a black market, where a bottle allegedly goes for approximately $ 25 – and whose content can be rejected.
Return from regular health care by sexual workers and others means that many are no longer being tested and do not know what levels they have viruses in body fluids – and they can pass it on others.
His countrymen angry with musk
even before America cutsAround 2 million people from South Africa lived with HIV, an estimated 8 million people, never on medicine. Some did not have time or money to spend on a trip to clinics. Some were in denial or did not believe in drugs. Some were not yet diagnosed.
Now that number is increasing.
Local advocate co-founder Yate Rafael said that he and fellow activists are worried that South Africa could go backwards for the prevention of HIV and AIDS groups.
“We are afraid that we are going to see people dying again,” he said.
Echo across AfricaThe continent from the US aid cuts the most difficult hit. The Trump administration has defended the cuts, stating that the expenditure was not align with American interests.
“And we are in $ 37 trillion debt. So at some point, the continent of Africa needs to absorb more burden of providing this health care,” Russell Wout, director of the US Office of Management and Budget, told about a hearing in June.
Among the South African people, some wonder Trump’s stance may be affected by his country’s Elon Musk, who oversees early attempts to cut American aid.
A transgender woman said, “I did not find any civil word to express how I feel, but I hate him what he did.” “Our life matters.”
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Lewis Dawast, Associated Press
