Before President Donald Trump stood up to US financing aid abroad in late January, the relief worker was going on her days in the inspection of hundreds of acquired HIV patients (AIDS) in South Africa’s designers at a distance of approximately 300 km from Johannesburg.
But a 45 -year -old woman – who asked not to disclose her real name – is now forced to stay at home and was prevented from contacting her patients. Over the past two months, daily contacts from miserable children needed HIV treatment who are not allowed to help them.
“I was supporting 380 children, and I was keen that each of them take his medicine, and that the virus be curbed and no child would be exposed to discrimination or violation.”
“We teach them to accept themselves as they are, to realize that they are loved. I consider them as my children,” she added.
The non -governmental organization that she worked, which she did not want to reveal her identity in anticipation of any consequences, was supporting about 100,000 people annually, including many children with HIV, orphans and families supported by children. The American Agency for International Development has provided the group more than $ 3 million annually.
Elsie was one of more than 100 health workers assigned to follow children and ensure their safety and facilitate their arrival to life -long treatment to stay in good health and avoid the transmission of the virus.
Now, as she is unable to lose them, she says she is afraid of the worst.
“I am afraid that they will not take their medications,” she said, adding that some children have disappeared since the program ended. And you are concerned that others fail their appointments in the hospital.
“We know each of these children and their problems. Some of them will not survive.”
More than one medicine
One of the highest rates of HIV in South Africa, where the virus suffers about 13% of the population, or 7.8 million people, according to government data.
In 2023, the number of children who were affected by the virus in this country reached 640,000.
The government stressed that financing deductions will not affect their distribution of anti -viral drugs. Last February, a campaign to expand the scope of saved life of 5.9 million patients was launched, to include 1.1 million additional people by the end of the year.
“The country has the ability to provide … the HIV treatment for people with it, because approximately 90% of the current treatment is purchased from the public treasury/ government budget.”
However, the American President’s relief plan from AIDS, which was among the programs affected by the reduction of financing, was supporting many programs that focus on prevention, guidance and monitoring and its contribution reached 17% of South Africa’s total response to the HIV.
“It goes beyond the mere provision of the medicine,” said Sibonghili Chapalala, a head of the “movement for treatment”, a pioneering organization in the field of advocacy of AIDS.
“It is about finding a friendly health factor in the facility. It is about understanding the challenges of those with HIV and their needs. It is about prevention and keeping patients under care,” she added.
The head of the organization fears that the financing reduction will affect a significant impact on human resources in hospitals, which are already suffering from employees and overcrowding, including extending waiting periods.
Health Minister Aaron Motalide said that deductions in the US President’s Emergency President’s AIDS plan alone led to the loss of 15,000 workers for their jobs.
Fitucon for our destiny
A study – which was issued in the “Annals of Internal Medicine” bulletin last February – indicated that the relief of the relief program from South Africa may lead to more than 600 thousand additional deaths linked to the HIV acquired during the next decade.
While the Ministry of Health considered the number just “assumptions”, Chapalala-asphalt of the French Press Agency stated that it believes that “people will die.”
“People will not be able to absent from work to get their medications,” she said. “
A 17 -year -old slender man sits at his mother’s house on an earthen road in a justification holding his head in his hands. Elsie believes that this teenager – who looks like signs of autism – believes about his next date.
His mother explains that Elsie was accompanying him to the clinic, and she says, “I helped him a lot when he was suffering.” She explains that she cannot take a vacation from work to accompany her son and that she feels “as if we were left to our destiny.”
I have a similar feeling, saying, “I was forced to abandon them … They truly trusted me.”