Latest news with #ZackieAchmat
CNN
6 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
More Than 100 Aid Organizations Warn of Famine in Gaza - Amanpour - Podcast on CNN Podcasts
More Than 100 Aid Organizations Warn of Famine in Gaza Amanpour 58 mins More than 100 aid organizations warn, "famine" is knocking on the door in Gaza. Correspondent Jeremy Diamond reports on the dire situation there. Then, as the International Court of Justice gives its first ever ruling on climate change, we hear from a Vanuatu official whose Pacific Island Nation faces an existential threat from rising oceans. And, how U.S. funding cuts set back the fight against HIV/AIDS. Christiane speaks to South African activist Zackie Achmat. Also, a decorated U.S. army veteran forced to self-deport to Korea. Michel Martin speaks with Sae Joon Park and immigration lawyer Danicole Ramos.
CNN
6 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Famed South African activist gets back into fight for HIV meds after USAID cuts
South African activist Zackie Achmat talks to Christiane Amanpour about the impacts of USAID cuts on the fight against HIV/AIDS.
New York Times
14-07-2025
- Health
- New York Times
A Venerable AIDS Activist Returns to Battle
The activists gathered on the steps of the cathedral in the center of Cape Town. Most were older women, faces lined beneath their head wraps. They converged around a gray-haired man in an oversized coat, his shoulders hunched against the morning chill. Linking arms, they set out to infiltrate a meeting across the street. 'Ready?' the man said, sounding a little weary, a little nervous. It had been a while since Zackie Achmat confronted his government about matters of life and death. Twenty-five years ago, Mr. Achmat co-founded what became the most powerful social movement in post-apartheid South Africa. He led a showdown against the government that won lifesaving medical treatment for millions of people with H.I.V. — and nearly killed him. Until just a few months ago, Mr. Achmat, 63, thought those days were well behind him. He was spending time on a pomegranate farm, caring for rescue dogs and watching Korean telenovelas. He made a failed bid for parliament on an anti-corruption platform, but he was enjoying watching new generation of activists lead. As for H.I.V., the issue that once dominated his life, he hardly thought about it. He didn't need to, so robust was the national treatment program that grew out of the victories that Mr. Achmat and his colleagues won two decades ago. Then came January, and the Trump administration's decision to slash its foreign assistance, including funding for the President's Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. As part of an overall reduction in funds sent overseas, which Mr. Trump has called wasteful and a misuse of taxpayer dollars, PEPFAR's budget has been sharply reduced. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Politico
09-07-2025
- Health
- Politico
Filling the void left by PEPFAR
WORLD VIEW A prominent South African HIV activist is calling on Brazil, China, India and Thailand to step in to help fill the void left by U.S. funding cuts for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment abroad. How so? Those countries have the capacity to manufacture HIV drugs and, in the case of China and India, strong enough economies to help provide African countries with those medicines, said Zackie Achmat, the founder of the Treatment Action Campaign, a South African HIV activist organization. 'We call on China, which no doubt is a rising power and probably has the best economy going for it on the globe; it has efficient funding; it also owns debt on our continent … so China needs to act,' Achmat told reporters in a Tuesday call organized by the International AIDS Society ahead of its conference on HIV science in Rwanda next week. Why it matters: Achmat's call came amid significant cuts to foreign aid funding by the U.S. and European countries. Several new studies presented during the call showed some of the real-life and projected impacts of the U.S. cuts. The U.S. has funded HIV prevention and treatment services for more than two decades abroad through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. In Mozambique, the cuts disproportionately affected children, with a 44 percent reduction in testing in February 2025 compared with a year earlier, according to a study by researchers in Australia, Mozambique and the U.S. In Johannesburg, South Africa, the termination of an award by the now-defunct U.S. Agency for International Development led to an 8.5 percent decrease in testing, a 31 percent decline in HIV diagnoses and a 30 percent reduction in treatment initiations, according to a study by the provincial government and researchers from South Africa and Switzerland. A survey of organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean by Canadian, Colombian and U.S. researchers estimated that at least 150,000 people will lose access to HIV treatment and prevention services due to the U.S. cuts. Finally, a modeling study that hasn't yet been peer-reviewed showed that the funding freeze for prevention services in sub-Saharan Africa could lead to more than 6,600 new HIV infections over a year. What's next: The Senate is considering further cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars to the program as part of a rescission package the Trump administration has requested. Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told the Senate Appropriations Committee last month that the cuts would preserve lifesaving treatment and singled out funding for LGBTQ+ organizations and sex workers as some of the reasons PEPFAR cuts were needed. On Tuesday, Achmat said creditors for African countries should restructure or cancel some of the debt. He said the African continent will pay $89 billion this year in debt, double the $43 billion in aid the U.S. was spending before the cuts, without factoring in the support for Ukraine and Israel. 'On behalf of the Global HIV Treatment Coalition, we are calling for a global day of action against financial institutions, focusing specifically on the United States, on the European Union and other multilateral institutions,' Achmat said. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Former director of HHS's Office of Civil Rights, Melanie Fontes Rainer, has joined L.A. Care Health Plan, the largest publicly operated health plan in the country, as chief strategy and transformation officer. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Danny Nguyen at dnguyen@ Carmen Paun at cpaun@ Ruth Reader at rreader@ or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@ Want to share a tip securely? Message us on Signal: Dannyn516.70, CarmenP.82, RuthReader.02 or ErinSchumaker.01. WASHINGTON WATCH The health care industry is suffering under increasing cyberattacks. And a Senate hearing Wednesday on health care cybersecurity showed how the federal government, at the moment, isn't offering much help. During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Democrats repeatedly said Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill will impede the ability of health systems to invest in cybersecurity infrastructure. Some of the witnesses backed up that concern. 'Any cuts to organizations means fewer dollars to invest whether that's for patient care or cybersecurity,' said Linda Stevenson, chief information officer at Fisher-Titus Medical Center in Norwalk, Ohio. The big picture: Health systems face multiplying cyberattacks at a time when President Donald Trump is weakening federal cyber agencies and programs. Health care is the most targeted industry by cyberattacks, and breaches can cost an average of $9.77 million, according to Cisco, a large cybersecurity provider. In fact, ransomware attacks on health care have increased three-fold since 2015, according to IBM. But according to witnesses at the hearing, the Trump administration has been less engaged in working with the health care industry on this issue. Greg Garcia, executive director at Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council, said the government canceled in January an important advisory council that informs the government's engagement with industry on cyber issues. 'Our government partners have been required to suspend substantive engagement with industry on critical infrastructure planning and strategy, potentially jeopardizing our collaborative risk identification and mitigation and the nation's critical infrastructure security and resiliency,' he said. He called for the public-private partnership to be reinstated. Bill's bill: Last year, Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) put forward a bipartisan bill with Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) that would provide grants to health care institutions for cybersecurity infrastructure and response. That bill would also modernize the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act so that covered entities use cyber best practices.
