Washington - Saba:
The administration of US President Donald Trump has moved to stop supplying life-saving drugs to treat HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as medical supplies for newborns, in countries supported by the US Agency for International Development around the world, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
Contractors and partners working with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) began receiving such memos on Tuesday to "immediately stop work", and one of the memos reached the consulting company "Chemonics", which works with USAID in the field of supplying drugs for a range of conditions around the world.
In an interview with Reuters, the former head of the global health department at USAID, Atul Gawande, who left it this month, described what happened as "catastrophic".
He said: "The donated drug supplies keep 20 million people living with HIV alive, and this stops today."
Gawande pointed out that this decision also means that drug-resistant strains may emerge, noting that "this includes organizations that work with 6.5 million orphans and vulnerable children living with HIV in 23 countries."
US President Donald Trump had signed an executive order directing the United States to withdraw from the World Health Organization, which had previously been the target of his criticism due to his opposition to its handling of the "Covid-19" pandemic.
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