‘Health emergency response most affected by US funding cuts’

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Results of a new audit by the World Health Organization (WHO) across 108 country offices in low- and lower-middle-income countries show that many countries are working to increase or reallocate funding from domestic and alternative external sources to address gaps left by the withdrawal of the United States from funding some key health programmes.

This rapid assessment done between March and April shows, the most frequently reported impacts were on health emergency preparedness and response at 70%, followed by public health surveillance at 66%.  58% reported impacts on service provision, 56% on humanitarian aid and the health and care workforce at 54%.

Overall, the survey shows 70% reported health service interruptions as a result of sudden suspensions and reductions in official development assistance (ODA) for health that started in January when the US President announced a three-month pause for the country to re-align and re-evaluate its foreign policy.

Up to 24% of WHO Country Office responses suggest budget cuts are already translating into increased out-of-pocket payments. The poor and vulnerable are likely at risk of bearing the additional brunt of these impacts.

“These results paint a worrying picture about the impact of the sudden and unplanned cuts to aid on the health of millions of people,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Although these cuts are a shock, they are also driving an accelerated transition away from aid dependency to a more sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources. Many countries are asking for WHO support, and WHO is working with them to identify and tailor the most effective measures.”

According to WHO, this stocktake was aimed at identifying the urgent support countries need to avoid catastrophic impacts on the health of the populations and to guide monitoring of the rapidly evolving situation.

Now, the report notes that the nature and scale of service disruptions are comparable to those observed during the peak periods of the COVID-19 pandemic in some settings with high levels of disruptions reported in outbreak detection and response, malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted infections, family planning, and maternal and child health services.

Another key highlight from the audit report is the impact on health information systems.  Over 40% of countries experienced disruptions to key information systems, including collaborative surveillance and emergency systems, health management information systems, disease-specific reporting systems, lab information systems, and population surveys.

This finding confirms an earlier revelation by the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention that they were facing a major difficulty in tracing sufferers of Mpox, with funding for transport of samples being halted.

At a press conference on Thursday, Prof. Yap Boum the Incident Manager for Mpox at Africa CDC, said only two out of ten suspected cases are currently being tested with the local response in DRC and Uganda, which are currently recording the highest number of cases being strained.