Trump Administration May End PEPFAR

Politico (3/23, Paun) reports the Trump Administration’s “decision to suddenly halt and then terminate most U.S. foreign aid” may jeopardize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), “the program President George W. Bush created to combat HIV and AIDS in the developing world.” Since late February, the Administration “has terminated hundreds of millions of dollars in PEPFAR grants and contracts.” The aid cuts have “alarmed public health advocates.” Over 500 AIDS physicians and researchers warned in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio that a “sudden end to PEPFAR could kill six million people in the next four years, reverse decades of progress and lead to growing HIV epidemics across the world.” Nevertheless, the 2003 law that established PEPFAR is set to expire March 25 “with no indication it’ll be renewed anytime soon.”