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.<\/p>\n
Affected projects will be given a short period to wind down operations \u201cresponsibly\u201d and complete an \u201corderly handover,\u201d according to a State Department spokesperson quoted by The Washington Post.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Similar frameworks have been signed with more than 30 other countries, but Zimbabwe was among a small group that rejected the terms.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwean officials said the proposed data access requirements did not guarantee the country would benefit from medical advances developed using the information.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Health advocates warn the impact could be severe.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Its executive director warned in a letter last week that the \u201chuman costs\u201d could be catastrophic, calling for emergency measures to protect critical services and urging renewed negotiations.<\/p>\n
The move fits into the Trump administration\u2019s broader effort to reshape foreign health assistance, following large cuts to the US Agency for International Development last year.<\/p>\n
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 \u201crapidly fixing what is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zimbabwean officials have said they will raise domestic spending and seek financing from the Global Fund to contain the fallout from the US pullback.<\/p>\n
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