Life Saving Health Initiative and Medical Research Projects are closed around the world in response to the 90 -day suspension of the Trump administration’s foreign support and suspension order.
In Uganda, the National Malaria Control Program has been suspended to spray insecticide in a village house and stopped shipping the bed net to distribute to pregnant women and young children.
Pharmaceutical supplies that stop the bleeding of pregnant women and medical supplies, including reed Japanese salt that threaten diarrhea that threaten the life of infants, is paid through a truck transport company that transports them through a suspended supply project for US international development. I can’t reach the village of Zambia because I was. USAID
Dozens of clinical trials in South Asia, Africa and Latin America have been stopped. Thousands of people registered in the research have drugs, vaccines, and medical devices on their bodies, but they have no access to researchers who are supervising continuous treatment and care.
In an interview, more than 20 researchers and program managers explained the drastic changes in health systems in developing countries. Most people agree to be interviewed under the conditions that their names are not disclosed. Talking with the reporter fears that their projects can resume at risk.
Many of the interviews have shed tears because they explained the rapid destruction of work for decades.
The program that has been frozen or folded over the past six days supports the forefront of infectious diseases and provides treatment and precautionary measures to avoid the death of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases. did. They also presented a generous and generous image of the United States in a country where China is increasingly competing for influence.
The Ministry of State and USAID did not respond to comment requests.
Currently, no one will custle millions of dollar -specific supplies for important oxygen systems purchased for programs provided by USAID, which supports some of the poorest health clinics in the world. The cargo currently being transported is scheduled to reach the port in the coming days, but those program employees are ordered to stop their work.
On Tuesday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a freezing of “life -saving humanitarian”, including a memo of the Ministry of State, called “Core LifeSaving Medicine”. However, it is said that the Shuttered HIV and the tuberculosis treatment program cannot resume work until the USAID contact uses a written instruction that the abandonment is particularly applied to them.
On Tuesday, the Federal Judge blocked frozen until February 3rd. However, most of the USAID country offices and programs are on progress as if they are freezing.
They explain whether they can continue their jobs, as they have been dismissed from the USAID contact information, or because they are strictly instructed so that they don’t talk to anyone, and when they can continue. I couldn’t.
Despite the court’s order, thousands of people have already lost their work as a result of freezing. Approximately 500 USAID -based US employees were fired. In countries from India to Zimbabwe, health project staff were immediately fired. An organization called Bangladesh International Diarrhea Research Center has fired more than 1,000 employees this week.
If the exemptions announced by Rubio are not applied to their job -probably because it is expected to exempt only in the narrow activities -many non -profit organizations will pay employees and maintain supply. I don’t have enough money. Already, organizations that rely on USAID funds have not accessed money to refunds that have already occurred.
Two -thirds of the President’s Malaria Initiative staff were fired by the anti -malaria program and the former President George W Bush, the largest donor in the world. These employees were contract staff. This is because the institution has been hiring many years of employment for permanent positions, including some of the most advanced and respected scientists working on malaria control worldwide.
Protests were promoted by the suspension of HIV treatment, but the suspension of malaria’s work would quickly expose their lives. I said.
Malaria interventions in Africa are carefully planned during the rainy season, and that era varies from region to region. Insectors are sprayed in the house, and children are treated with anti -malaria drugs at the peak of malaria.
“Tomorrow, we will be able to open the fund for raising funds again, but the children will be dead for a few months for this suspension,” said scientists.
By the rainy season of last year, more than 50 million children received preventive drugs.
In the case of malaria, prompt inspections to Myanmar and delivery of malaria drugs It increased almost 10 times 850,000 (the latest number) was frozen from 78,000 to 2023 in 2019. Some organizations do not have workers distributing supplies, even if they arrive.
In some regions of the country 40 % or more The case is a kind of mortal malaria under the age of 5. Malaria drugs seem to be qualified under the provisions of “life -saving humanitarian support” included in the abandonment of rights, but are not certain. , It’s not as bold as trying to release a stuck drug at the border of Thailand.
Approximately 2.4 million anti -malaria bednets are sitting in Asian production facilities, manufactured to meet the orders provided by the United States, and are detained for Africa’s south of Sahara. These contracts are currently frozen. This is because the USAID subcontractor who purchased them is not allowed to talk to the manufacturer based on the freeze conditions. Manufacturers have said that 8 million nets contracts are currently in the scope.
The biggest USAID project is called Global Health Supply Chain. This is an effort to rationalize the procurement of HIV, malaria, mother’s health, and other important fields, make the system more efficient, and save money. In many cases, it works in more than 55 countries that supply most of the major drugs. Currently, the global staff are ordered to stop working except for important tasks, such as protecting warehouses.
In Zambia, USAID supports large -volume distribution of public health products, and uses the private truck transport industry to move drugs from the central supplier depot to seven regional hubs, and from there, trucks, motorcycles, and boats. It will be transported to the health center. This is a part of the United States’s extensive support for Zambia’s health systems, one of the poorest countries in the world, and has been working to enhance the government’s supply chain over time.
Since the order of stopping work was issued last Saturday, all vehicles that transport health products have been stopped. “They were effectively paralyzed by pulling out the Public Hygians in Zambia,” said a consultant who worked in the program. Currently, the same US funds have moved to most of the basic medical supplies in Mozambique, Nigeria, Malawi and Haiti.
In East Africa, medical researchers who are working on projects to stop HIV propagation and find a way to develop more effective contraception will be created to give explanations to clinical trial participants. I noticed that I was.
“We are testing a vagina ring to women. They already have those rings. We have obtained an injections to prevent HIV. Many clinical trials are investigators. One HIV researcher said, “We have ethical obligations for those who are volunteering for trials.”
APOORVA MANDAVILLI Contributed report.
