Fifty countries affected by USAID freeze, says WHO chief

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says that the programs to deal with HIV, Polio, MPOX and bird flu have been affected by freeze at tens of billions of dollars of foreign aid from the US.

US President Donald Trump has taken steps to shut down the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), arguing that its expenses are “completely unclear”.

However, who is the head Dr. Tedros Adnom Gabreyasus has urged the Trump administration that they cannot find other solutions.

HIV treatment and other services have been disrupted in 50 countries, they said in a briefing on Wednesday.

Dr. Speaking publicly about the freeze on USD funding at a virtual press conference in Tedros, Dr. Tedros said: “There is an action that the US government is taking … which we are worried that global health is having a serious impact.”

In particular, he pointed to the President’s emergency plan, Pepfar suspension for AIDS relief, stating that HIV treatment, testing and prevention services in 50 countries had stopped.

He said that a vengeance for life saving services did not stop the disruption.

Dr. Tedros said, “The clinics have been closed and health workers are on leave.”

Global health experts have warned of spreading the disease, With delay in development of vaccines and new remedies as a result of cuts.

Trump has argued that the USAID is “disabled and corrupt”.

He recently announced a huge cut for the agency’s 10,000-confirmation workforce and immediate suspension of almost all support programs.

The agency spends approximately $ 40BN (£ 32BN) – about 0.6% of the total US annual government spending – on humanitarian aid, most of which leads to health programs.

Most of USAID money is spent in Asia, sub-Sahara Africa and Europe, where it is mainly used for human efforts in Ukraine.

Elon Musk, Technical Billowaire who is working on the White House’s effort to reduce the size of the federal government, has earlier claimed that the aid agency is a “criminal organization”.

Neither Trump nor Musk have given clear evidence to support their claims.

Also freeze on USAID, President Trump has taken steps to withdraw the United States from WHO.

The US was the largest fund of the United Nations Health Agency under the Biden administration and in 2023 it contributed about fifth of the agency’s budget.

Dr. Tedros said that Trump’s decision was affecting cooperation among countries on global health threats. He also said that the US had reduced reporting of bird flu cases in humans.

The WHO states that it has employed emergency measures similar to the gaps used during the Kovid epidemic, where there is a deficiency to fill gaps – life -guard antiretroviral drug, for example, is used to treat people living with HIVs.

Meg Dohrti, director of Global HIV, Hepatitis and Sexual Infections (STI) programs at WHO, said that efforts were being made to coordinate significant supply of drugs among countries.

However, he said that a better, long -term solution was required: “We are seeking support from the country to the country to share, but this is a short -term approach.”