Health Policy Watch analysis
Ghana has become the latest African country to reject the United States’ terms for bilateral health assistance, particularly the requirement to share sensitive health data, according to Reuters.
Late last year, Zimbabwe rejected US terms for health assistance, particularly the demand to share pathogen data without any “corresponding guarantee of access to any medical innovations – such as vaccines, diagnostics, or treatments – that might result from that shared data,” according to government spokesperson Nick Mangwana.
Zambia has until 30 April to decide on whether to avail its minerals – primarily copper, cobalt and lithium – to US companies in exchange for health assistance.
US aid supported antiretroviral treatment for an estimated 1,3 million Zambians. In the wake of disruptions since President Donald Trump assumed office last January, some Zambian hospitals are seeing an increase in AIDS cases, according to the New York Times.
Meanwhile, South Africa has been frozen out of health aid by the Trump administration – in the main, for charging Israel with genocide at the International Criminal Court and for policies aimed at addressing apartheid-era discrimination that the US claims are anti-white.
The loss of US funding has “damaged critical health services, dismantled HIV prevention programs, and disrupted world-class South Africa-US research collaboration,” according to a report published last week by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Advocates for the Prevention of HIV in South Africa (APHA), and Emthonjeni Counselling and Training.
Read the full analysis here.
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Source : Health Policy Watch
