The reduction in foreign aid, particularly during the Trump administration, has significantly hampered disease prevention and outbreak response programs globally. This has resulted in:
Experts warn that this weakening of global health infrastructure increases the vulnerability of populations worldwide to infectious diseases. The interconnected nature of global travel means that outbreaks originating overseas can quickly spread internationally, impacting even countries like the United States.
The article emphasizes that protecting global health is directly in the interest of the United States. The lack of robust international disease prevention programs increases the risk of outbreaks reaching the US. Even with strong domestic prevention efforts, the reduced international focus significantly increases this risk.
Dr. Githinji Gitahi, head of Amref Health Africa, highlights the critical role of US funding in global health initiatives. The reduced funding weakens global capacity to prevent and control outbreaks, ultimately posing a greater threat to global health security, including that of the United States.
Dangerous pathogens left unsecured at labs across Africa. Halted inspections for mpox, Ebola and other infections at airports and other checkpoints. Millions of unscreened animals shipped across borders.
The Trump administration’s pause on foreign aid has hobbled programs that prevent and snuff out outbreaks around the world, scientists say, leaving people everywhere more vulnerable to threatening viruses and bacteria.
That includes Americans. Outbreaks that begin overseas can travel quickly: The coronavirus may have first appeared in China, for example, but it soon appeared everywhere, including the United States. When polio or dengue appears in this country, cases are usually linked to international travel.
“It’s actually in the interest of American people to keep diseases down,” said Dr. Githinji Gitahi, who heads Amref Health Africa, a large nonprofit that relies on the United States for about 25 percent of its funding.
“Diseases make their way to the U.S. even when we have our best people on it, and now we are not putting our best people on it,” he added.
In interviews, more than 30 current and former officials of the United States Agency for International Development, members of health organizations and experts in infectious diseases described a world made more perilous than it was just a few weeks ago.
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