One dangerous consequence of the termination of most United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs by the new US Government is that funding is being cut off for disease prevention in the Global South. Billionaire Elon Musk, the czar of the new US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) even boasted on X, the social media platform he owns, that he “fed the USAID to the wood chipper”.
The US is also withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO), which led the worldwide response to the Covid-19 pandemic that engulfed the world exactly five years ago. The DOGE has also gutted the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), a world leader in disease tracking and response.
Taken together, these three actions of the US administration could endanger the lives of millions of people around the world. The US was the biggest contributor to the WHO and no other aid agency had the same reach of the USAID, which did a great deal of work to prevent Polio, Malaria and HIV spread especially in Asia and Africa.
We live in dangerous times. That was the biggest lesson we learned from the Covid-10 pandemic. It only takes a few days for a really virulent virus to go from “Patient Zero” to the one millionth patient, creating a worldwide pandemic. No country can close its borders to a virus. International cooperation is the best way to beat a pandemic, though the rich countries took some time to realise it. They hoarded all the Covid-19 vaccines as soon as they came out of the factory. The disease had more or less run its course when some African countries eventually got them.
In case you thought that Covid-19 is dead and gone, it is still around, though not on the same scale both numbers and virulence wise. Since Sri Lanka no longer administers PCR or RAT tests, Covid-19 numbers here remain unknown. This is the case with many other countries.
According to the latest research, survivors of Covid-19 hospitalisation face an increased risk of death or organ-related disorders for up to two-and-a-half years after discharge. Published in Infectious Diseases, the study of nearly 64,000 people I Western Europe provides valuable insights into the long-term health effects of Covid-19 and emphasizes the need for continued healthcare and monitoring for people who have been hospitalised with SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Long Covid is another phenomenon that still haunts millions around the world long after they have been “cured” of Covid. This is a debilitating condition where some symptoms of the disease, along with new ones such as “brain fog”, insomnia and fatigue persist for many months or even years after the virus had apparently left the body. However, almost any organ can be affected, including the heart and blood vessels, lungs, nervous system, gut and endocrine (hormone) system. Researchers say that vaccines are the best defence against Long Covid. Vaccines attuned to the latest strains of the Covid Coronavirus are now available.
At the rate viruses are proliferating in other species, there is a probability of another Zoonotic (viral disease transmitted from animals to humans) pandemic happening again. And it could even be fungal in origin as depicted in the hit TV series The Last of Us. The next pandemic could be even more virulent, even more lethal. This is why we need more international research on viruses, the public health response and new medications/treatment methods. We might still not be able to “stop” the next virus, but if more lives can be saved, that will be a victory in the fight against pathogens.
Polio was very nearly eradicated, but there are wild strains of the disease particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which just reported two new cases for this year. The WHO’s recent Polio vaccine drive in strife-torn Gaza reached 600,000 children in five days, but aid cuts could leave the vaccination drive there and elsewhere in limbo.
Malaria, which can be deadly without treatment, is still endemic in 83 countries. Sri Lanka was certified by the WHO as being free of Malaria a few years ago, but there still are “imported” cases – patients who arrive from abroad with the disease. Around 600,000 people died of the disease in 2023, while there were 263 million cases. The US was the biggest source of funding (36 percent) for fighting Malaria from 2010 to 2023 and the withdrawal of US funds will be a devastating blow to prevention efforts. The only silver lining is that effective one-dose vaccines are being developed and tested, which could eventually save thousands of lives.
HIV experts say that aid cuts for prevention and treatment efforts could result in 500,000 deaths over the next 10 years in Africa alone. More than half of HIV medicines purchased for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Haiti, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia were purchased by the US. Before the freeze, the US Government provided two-thirds of international financing for HIV prevention in low and middle-income countries, according to estimates from the Global HIV Prevention Coalition.
The aid cuts could prevent access to lifesaving antiretroviral drugs, which have turned a certain death sentence into a new lease of life for HIV/AIDS patients. It also comes at a time when scientific breakthroughs, such as the introduction of long-acting injectable prevention drugs, meant that many working in the HIV field had hoped an end to the disease might be in sight. However, in the light of concerns expressed by the global medical community, US authorities have resumed aid and resources for some HIV and Ebola prevention programs.
Health should be a global concern as diseases respect no man-made boundaries. The rich countries should collectively slash their massive defence budgets at least by a slim margin and pool such resources to fight diseases to make the world healthy again.
