You are too dependent on US for HIV drugs, Unaids tells Kenya

 

Kenya is the tenth most reliant country on the US for its HIV medicines, a new UNAIDS report suggests.

The US directly purchases about 30 per cent of HIV drugs used in Kenya. The rest are mainly bought by the Geneva-based Global Fund, which receives about one-third of its total funding from the United States.

Unaids, the United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids, has been reviewing the impact of the US aid freeze to health services.

Its last week’s report, “Impact of US funding freeze on the global AIDS response”, indicates that apart from buying drugs, the US government provides crucial funding to support in-country logistics, procurement management, and quality assurance in Kenya and 32 other countries. 

Seven countries – Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Mozambique, DR Congo and Zimbabwe –receive more than 80 per cent of this support.

The Unaids said Kenya now faces possible stockouts of ARVs in the near future after the US government terminated contracts with drug suppliers last week.

Usaid sent termination notices to about 5,800 organisations around the world, including about 230 in Kenya.

 Unaids said some organisations involved in the procurement and distribution of HIV commodities also received termination notices.

 “Rapid shifts in the management of these systems will greatly increase the risk of supply distributions and stock outs, which would negatively impact the health outcomes of large numbers of people living with HIV and increase the risk of HIV transmission,” Unaids said in a statement.

 The Usaid email announcing termination of contracts was sent out on February 26.

 Usaid funded more than 230 organisations in Kenya in 2024, many of them addressing health services.

 Many of the projects terminated last week received a waiver from the freeze in January because the US government previously identified their work as essential and lifesaving.

 “Secretary [Marco] Rubio and PTDO Deputy Administrator [Peter] Marocco have determined your award is not aligned with Agency priorities and made a determination that continuing this program is not in the national interest,” said one email sent last week to Moi University College of Health Sciences.

 “Immediately cease all activities, terminate all subawards and contracts, and avoid incurring any additional obligations chargeable to the award beyond those unavoidable costs associated with this Termination Notice. Immediately provide similar instructions to all subrecipients and contractors.”

 The terse notice means that for many organisations in Kenya, any faint hope that American assistance might continue had ended.

 Nelson Otwoma, the director of the National Empowerment Network of People living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (Nephak), urged Kenyan government to step in.

 “Kenya must step up and take care of its own people. We are not Trump's responsibility,” he said.

Dr Catherine Kyobutungi, executive director of the African Population and Health Research Center (APHRC) said the shut down will lead to deaths of many people. “But we will never know, because even the programs to count the dead are cut,” she told the New York Times.

Funding was also cut for the Demographic and Health Survey, a project that collects health and population data every five years.

 It is the most comprehensive source of maternal and child health, nutrition, and reproductive health data in Kenya.  It is also the bedrock of health budgets and planning in Kenya.

Data collectors were expected to go to the field this year.

Also stopped is a contract to manage and distribute $34 million worth of medical supplies in Kenya, including 2.5 million monthlong HIV treatments, 750,000 HIV tests, 500,000 malaria treatments, 6.5 million malaria tests and 315,000 antimalaria bed nets.

Kenya has received Usaid support since 1964.

 The Usaid Kenya office allocated $2.5 billion in its 2020 - 2025 strategic plan, averaging about $471 million annually. About 80 per cent of this funding was allocated to healthcare, including HIV/AIDS, malaria, maternal and child health, and vaccinations.