Trump Administration
Patients and health care advocates said the abrupt decision to halt U.S. funding for a lifesaving H.I.V. program led to widespread confusion. The backtracking didn’t help.
Reporting from Johannesburg
As he does every three months, Sibusiso traveled on Wednesday morning to a clinic in the capital of Eswatini, a tiny southern African nation, to get a refill of the H.I.V. medication he needs to save his life. When he arrived, the door was locked and about 20 other patients stood outside, baffled that the clinic was closed.
Sibusiso, 39 and unemployed, had heard rumors that President Trump was pulling funding for the program that supported his treatment. Now, though, he learned the reality: The Trump administration had ordered a halt to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, one of America’s most consequential aid programs in Africa.
As Sibusiso stood outside the clinic, he feared he could be next. He had taken the last of his antiretroviral medication that morning. And even though the Trump administration had backtracked, suddenly announcing on Tuesday that lifesaving medications and treatments could continue to be distributed, the clinic remained shuttered in the confusion.
Sibusiso, standing outside, had no idea where or when he could get more medicine.
“I’m now thinking of dying,” said Sibusiso, who requested that only his first name be used to protect his privacy. “What am I going to do without this treatment?”
The Trump administration has said that foreign assistance programs will be paused for three months as it reviews how money is being spent. If the administration decides to end PEPFAR, it could lead to 600,000 deaths over the next decade in South Africa alone, where the program has its largest number of beneficiaries, according to a study.
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