A public health expert has warned that the suspension of United States foreign aid for HIV/AIDS programmes could reverse decades of progress and expose millions of Nigerians, especially youths, to renewed risk.
The Managing Director of Reach Care Foundation, Dr Nandul Durfa, raised the concern on Sunday in Abuja while reacting to the termination of funding agreements following a new US foreign aid policy. He urged the Federal Government to urgently step in and fully fund HIV/AIDS services to prevent a resurgence of the disease.
Durfa spoke after receiving a letter from the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria, informing his organisation of the immediate termination of funding support due to prevailing financial constraints. The institute, which had benefited from US foreign aid routed through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), said it was compelled to end all existing contracts.
According to Durfa, the withdrawal of funding has forced many Non-Governmental Organisations involved in HIV/AIDS services to shut down operations, leaving caregivers and patients in uncertainty. He recalled that about 20 years ago, HIV/AIDS posed a major public health crisis in Nigeria, with thousands of patients overwhelming hospitals.
“The U.S., through USAID, helped Nigeria significantly to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence. We were close to mopping it up, but stopping the funding without eliminating the virus will lead to a dangerous relapse,” he warned.
Durfa noted that young Nigerians, particularly those under 20, are most vulnerable as many never experienced the peak of the epidemic and may
