PIH Statement on Termination of Essential Foreign Aid and PEPFAR Programs

Partners In Health condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the Trump Administration's mass termination of USG grants and contracts supporting essential health care delivery and humanitarian assistance around the world. In total, 9,900 USAID and State Department grants and contracts have been terminated in the past 24 hours.  

At this time, PIH has received letters of termination of grants serving patients in Peru, one of the 11 countries where PIH works, as well as programs dedicated to testing, treating, and preventing Tuberculosis, the world’s most infectious killer.

Life-saving services that have previously been exempted from the foreign aid freeze have been cut, with only 500 of all 6,300 USAID-funded projects left intact. This is a cruel and reckless act that will result in unnecessary death and suffering, if not immediately reversed. This is especially true in communities that currently rely on health service delivery from these grants, most notably medicines, preventative services, and staffing support.  

Decades of progress in global health equity stands to be lost, including the over two decades of progress against HIV made by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) launched in 2003. Uniquely bi-partisan and one of the most successful global health programs in history, 20 million people worldwide currently depend on PEPFAR programs for medication, and over 220,000 patients visit PEPFAR-supported clinics daily.  

It has been estimated that a 90-day disruption to HIV treatment and care programs under PEPFAR alone could result in upwards of 100,000 excess HIV deaths. The indiscriminate mass termination of these grants providing essential health system inputs and humanitarian assistance will result in much greater harms, with dramatic increases in HIV, TB, and malaria cases likely, not to mention devastating impacts across all aspect of primary health care.    

PIH CEO Sheila Davis said, “The Trump administration is eliminating 90% of USAID foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, including previously exempted humanitarian programs. This immoral systemic targeting of already vulnerable people is a man-made catastrophe that directly results in death and suffering for millions including vulnerable HIV patients, starving children and refugees today, tomorrow and years to come.”  

One percent of the U.S. federal budget goes to foreign aid, and a fraction of that prevents millions of unnecessary deaths each year. Terminating projects, firing staff, and freezing funding for established programs that government and communities around the world currently rely on for delivering care is a death sentence for many people.  PIH has long advocated for reforms to foreign aid but pulling the rug out from under peoples’ feet will cause immediate and long-lasting harm. PIH stands in solidarity with those around the world who have been unilaterally and arbitrarily harmed by these efforts, with people who have lost their jobs, with people who won't be able to feed their children, with people who will lose loved ones, and with people who don’t know if they will be able to refill the prescriptions..

PIH stands with our patients and those affected globally. We will continue to work in solidarity for the right to health, we will not stop.