GENEVA

The suspension of foreign aid programs by US President Donald Trump puts 6.3 million people at risk of dying from HIV and AIDS over the next four years, a UN organization dealing with the viral disease warned on Friday.

"There is still a lot of confusion... about how the waiver will be implemented, and we're seeing a lot of disruption of the delivery of treatment services," UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Christine Stegling said during a UN briefing in Geneva.

Regarding the freeze's impact, Stegling said 20 million of the world's 30 million HIV-positive people rely on US aid for treatment.

Noting that the HIV global response is heavily dependent on funds from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) as it finances 70% of the overall AIDS response, she said, "We estimate that if PEPFAR wasn't reauthorized between 2025 and 2029 and other resources were not found for the HIV response, there would be a 400% increase in AIDS deaths."

"That's 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths that will occur in the future," she warned.

With the funding freeze, the biggest interruption will be on community health systems, she said, giving the example of Ethiopia, where UNAIDS had 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by US assistance.

"All of these in all regions of Ethiopia have been terminated," she noted.