Study: US aid cuts could cause over 14m deaths
The study in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet was published as world and business leaders met at a United Nations conference in Spain to try to bolster the reeling aid sector.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided over 40 per cent of global humanitarian funding until Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.
Two weeks later, Trump's then-close advisor — and the world's richest man — Elon Musk boasted of having put the agency "through the woodchipper".
The funding cuts "risk abruptly halting — and even reversing — two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations", warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
"For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," he said in a statement.
Looking back over data from 133 nations, the international team of researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91.8 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021. That is more than the estimated number of deaths during World War II — history's deadliest conflict.
The researchers also used modelling to project how funding being slashed by 83 per cent — the figure announced by the US government earlier this year — could affect death rates.
The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found.
That number included over 4.5 million children under the age of five — or around 700,000 child deaths a year.
For comparison, around 10 million soldiers are estimated to have been killed during World War I.
USAID funding was found to be particularly effective at staving off preventable deaths from disease.
There were 65 per cent fewer deaths from HIV/AIDS in countries receiving a high level of support compared to those with little or no USAID funding, the study found.
Deaths from malaria and neglected tropical diseases were similarly cut in half. Winnie Byanyima, head of the UN's HIV programme UNAids, said the funding cuts could lead to an additional 6.6 million people becoming infected with HIV in the next four years. — AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Observer
2 days ago
- Observer
Over 170 charities urge end to Gaza aid system
More than 170 non-governmental organisations called on Tuesday for a US and Israeli-backed food aid distribution scheme in Gaza to be dismantled over concerns it is putting civilians at risk of death and injury. More than 500 people have been killed in mass shootings near aid distribution centres or transport routes guarded by Israeli forces since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operating in late May, according to medical authorities in Gaza. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel says had let militants divert aid. The United Nations has called the plan 'inherently unsafe' and a violation of humanitarian impartiality rules. As of early afternoon in Geneva on Tuesday, where the joint declaration was released, 171 charities had signed on to the call for countries to press Israel to halt the GHF scheme and reinstate aid coordinated through the United Nations. "Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families," the statement said. Groups signing it included Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Amnesty International. In a response, the GHF said it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and said other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted". "Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza," the GHF said. Doctors Without Borders told reporters in an online press briefing on Tuesday that within the last month two of its small primary health centres had received 22 dead and 548 wounded people. Those who died had received fatal wounds to the chest and in abdomen. "They are not warning shots. They are shots directed towards the people," said Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, one of MSF's emergency coordinators in Gaza. In more than 50 per cent of the mass casualty incidents near food distribution sites, children have been shot and killed, said Rachel Cummings, Humanitarian Director for Save the Children in Gaza. "Children have told us they want to die... to be with their mother or father who have been killed. They want to be in paradise because there is food and water," said Cummings. The Israeli military acknowledged on Monday that Palestinian civilians have been harmed at aid distribution centres in Gaza, saying that Israeli forces had been issued new instructions following what it called "lessons learned". Israel has repeatedly said its forces operate near the centres in order to prevent the aid from falling into the hands of Palestinian Hamas fighters. Meanwhile, a UN official tasked with monitoring the Israeli occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday accused Israel of using companies to pursue a "settler-colonial" displacement project aimed at apartheid and genocide. Francesca Albanese, an Italian legal and human rights academic, said that while political leaders and governments shirked their obligations, "far too many corporate entities have profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide." Albanese, who was appointed UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories in 2022, has published a report entitled 'From economy of occupation to economy of genocide.' Israel has long accused Albanese of lacking fairness, neutrality and impartiality. The Israeli government rejects cooperation with the UN Human Rights Council and its organs. — Reuters/dpa
Observer
3 days ago
- Observer
Study: US aid cuts could cause over 14m deaths
PARIS: More than 14 million of the world's most vulnerable people, a third of them small children, could die by 2030 because of the Trump administration's dismantling of US foreign aid, research projected on Tuesday. The study in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet was published as world and business leaders met at a United Nations conference in Spain to try to bolster the reeling aid sector. The US Agency for International Development (USAID) had provided over 40 per cent of global humanitarian funding until Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Two weeks later, Trump's then-close advisor — and the world's richest man — Elon Musk boasted of having put the agency "through the woodchipper". The funding cuts "risk abruptly halting — and even reversing — two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations", warned study co-author Davide Rasella, a researcher at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal). "For many low- and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," he said in a statement. Looking back over data from 133 nations, the international team of researchers estimated that USAID funding had prevented 91.8 million deaths in developing countries between 2001 and 2021. That is more than the estimated number of deaths during World War II — history's deadliest conflict. The researchers also used modelling to project how funding being slashed by 83 per cent — the figure announced by the US government earlier this year — could affect death rates. The cuts could lead to more than 14 million avoidable deaths by 2030, the projections found. That number included over 4.5 million children under the age of five — or around 700,000 child deaths a year. For comparison, around 10 million soldiers are estimated to have been killed during World War I. USAID funding was found to be particularly effective at staving off preventable deaths from disease. There were 65 per cent fewer deaths from HIV/AIDS in countries receiving a high level of support compared to those with little or no USAID funding, the study found. Deaths from malaria and neglected tropical diseases were similarly cut in half. Winnie Byanyima, head of the UN's HIV programme UNAids, said the funding cuts could lead to an additional 6.6 million people becoming infected with HIV in the next four years. — AFP
Times of Oman
4 days ago
- Times of Oman
Nearly 20% of cancer drugs defective in 4 African nations
Berlin: An alarming number of people across Africa may be taking cancer drugs that don't contain the vital ingredients needed to contain or reduce their disease. It's a concerning finding with roots in a complex problem: how to regulate a range of therapeutics across the continent. A US and pan-African research group published the findings this week in The Lancet Global Health. The researchers had collected dosage information, sometimes covertly, from a dozen hospitals and 25 pharmacies across Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameroon. They tested nearly 200 unique products across several brands. Around 17% — roughly one in six — were found to have incorrect active ingredient levels, including products used in major hospitals. Patients who receive insufficient dosages of these ingredients could see their tumors keep growing, and possibly even spread. Similar numbers of substandard antibiotics, antimalarial and tuberculosis drugs have been reported in the past, but this is the first time that such a study has found high levels of falsified or defective anticancer drugs in circulation. "I was not surprised by these results," said Lutz Heide, a pharmacist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who has previously worked for the Somali Health Ministry and has spent the past decade researching substandard and falsified medicines. Heide was not part of the investigative group, but said the report shed light on a problem not previously measured. "I was delighted that, finally, someone published such a systemic report," he said. "That is a first, really significant systematic study of this area." Causes need addressing, but it's not straightforward "There are many possible causes for bad-quality products," Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame in the US, the investigation's senior researcher, told DW. Those causes can include faults in the manufacturing process or product decay due to poor storage conditions. But some drugs are also counterfeit, and that increases the risk of discrepancies between what's on the product label and the actual medicine within. Spotting substandard and falsified products can be difficult. Usually, a medical professional or patient is only able to perform a visual inspection — literally checking a label for discrepancies or pills and syringes for colour differences — to spot falsified products. But that's not a reliable method. In the study, barely a quarter of the substandard products were identified through visual inspection. Laboratory testing identified the rest. Fixing the problem, Lieberman said, will require improving regulation and providing screening technologies and training where they're needed. "If you can't test it, you can't regulate it," she said. "The cancer medications are difficult to handle and analyze because they're very toxic, and so many labs don't want to do that. And that's a core problem for the sub-Saharan countries where we worked. Even though several of those countries have quite good labs, they don't have the facilities that are needed for safe handling of the chemo drugs established." Not only cancer treatments are affected Nearly a decade ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) found around one in 10 medicines used in low and middle-income countries were substandard or falsified. Independent research conducted since has backed those figures up, sometimes finding rates that are potentially twice as high. "This could lead to treatment failure, adverse reactions, disease progression," health economist Sachiko Ozawa told DW. Ozawa contributed to the investigation on anticancer drugs and has separately researched other cases of defective medicines. "For the community, there's also economic losses in terms of wasted resources,' she said. 'So countries may be spending a lot of money on medications that are not going to be effective." While high-income countries can monitor supply chains and have stringent regulatory systems in place to identify and withdraw suspect products, the infrastructure to do that is far from common in other regions. In those places, poor access to affordable medication often drives patients to less-regulated marketplaces. Inadequate governance and regulation, as well as a scarcity of surveillance and diagnostic equipment to test pharmaceuticals, are all contributing to the problem in Africa. "In high-income countries, I think there's a much more secure supply chain where you know the manufacturers are vetted, it has to go through very stringent regulatory processes to get gets tested more frequently," said Ozawa. The WHO told DW that following the report's findings, it was working with the four affected countries to address the problem. "We are concerned with the findings the article has highlighted. WHO is in contact with national authorities of four impacted countries and obtaining relevant data," it said in a statement. "We expect to assess full information to evaluate the situation, which often takes time and capacity. But we're committed to address these issues working with the relevant countries and partners." The WHO also reiterated its ongoing call for countries to improve their regulatory frameworks to "prevent incidents of substandard and falsified medicines, including in settings of cancer programmes." Prevention, detection and response In 2017, the WHO's review of substandard and falsified medicines offered three solutions based around prevention, detection and response. Stopping the manufacture and sale of those medicines is the primary preventative measure, but where defective products make it to market, surveillance and response programs can prevent poor quality medicines from reaching patients. But regulatory reform sought by experts and authorities takes time. More immediate solutions are being developed in the form of better screening technologies. Lieberman is working on a "paper lab" — a type of test that can be used by trained professionals to chemically test the quality of a product before it's administered to a patient. Other laboratory technologies are also under development. One comforting point is that while a significant proportion of the medication circulating in medical facilities in the four African countries was defective, the majority of the products tested met required standards. "[With] two-thirds of the suppliers, all the products [were] good quality, so there are good quality suppliers," said Heide. "But a few of them really have a suspiciously high number of failing samples."
