Six million people could die from HIV and AIDS if US funding stops, UN agency warns

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GENEVA, Feb 7 (Reuters) - More than six million people could die from HIV and AIDS in the next four years if U.S. President Donald Trump's administration pulls its global funding for programmes, the United Nations AIDS agency said on Friday.

Although a waiver was placed on HIV/AIDS programmes in last month's U.S. foreign aid funding freeze, many concerns remained about the future of treatment programmes, the deputy executive director of UNAIDS told reporters in Geneva.

"There is a lot of confusion especially on the community level, how the waiver will be implemented. We're seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services", Christine Stegling said.

Trump put hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of foreign aid donations on hold for 90 days upon taking office on January 20. In the following days, the U.S. State Department issued a waiver on the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - the world's leading HIV initiative - for life-saving humanitarian assistance.

While welcoming the waiver, Stegling stressed the situation remains chaotic.

Amid a broader decline of funding, Stegling warned there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths if PEPFAR financial support is not re-authorized between 2025 and 2029.

"That's 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in future...Any penny, any cut, any pause, will matter for all of us" she said, urging U.N. member states to step in.

"In Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by U.S. assistance. And all of these have been terminated," Stegling said.

She highlighted that community clinics were facing the biggest interruption as they are "entirely dependent" on U.S. government funding.

She expressed concern that some people may not come forward for treatment, which could in turn increase new HIV infections.

U.S. donations account for the majority of global funding for the U.N. programme that operates in 70 countries, leading global efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Trump's administration says it is reviewing all foreign-aid programmes to see if they align with his "America First" policy.