The United States has officially ended decades of health aid to Zimbabwe, cutting funding for HIV and other infectious disease programmes after the two sides failed to agree on a new deal.

Affected projects will be given a short period to wind down operations “responsibly” and complete an “orderly handover,” according to a State Department spokesperson quoted by The Washington Post.

The decision followed the collapse of negotiations in February over a proposed five-year, US$367 million agreement covering HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other health priorities.

In the talks, the US sought to condition aid on access to sensitive medical and biological data held by Zimbabwean authorities, linked to a broader effort to obtain information tied to valuable mineral interests.

Similar frameworks have been signed with more than 30 other countries, but Zimbabwe was among a small group that rejected the terms.

Zimbabwean officials said the proposed data access requirements did not guarantee the country would benefit from medical advances developed using the information.

Zimbabwe also faced further conditions, including plans by the US to spend only a fraction of what it had paid under earlier commitments while requiring Zimbabwe to more than double its own spending on the health programmes over the next four years.

Health advocates warn the impact could be severe.

Health GAP, an organisation campaigning for access to HIV treatment, says US funding has supported salaries and training for about 8,300 health workers and helped sustain laboratory services and disease-detection capacity at about 1,900 facilities.

Its executive director warned in a letter last week that the “human costs” could be catastrophic, calling for emergency measures to protect critical services and urging renewed negotiations.

The move fits into the Trump administration’s broader effort to reshape foreign health assistance, following large cuts to the US Agency for International Development last year.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month that the administration intends to preserve what it views as effective parts of health assistance while “rapidly fixing what is broken.”

Zimbabwean officials have said they will raise domestic spending and seek financing from the Global Fund to contain the fallout from the US pullback.