The documentary explores the real cost of the Trump Administration’s aid cuts on those living with HIV in parts of Africa (Photo credit: Bel Trew/The Independent)
Presented by The Independent’s chief international correspondent Bel Trew, ‘Death Sentence’ goes to the hardest hit areas of Uganda and Zimbabwe. It reveals in heartbreaking detail the deadly impact of the Trump administration’s abrupt funding freeze to its global HIV response programmes.
Despite a State Department waiver for lifesaving-care reportedly in place, funding is still not getting through: AIDS clinics are having to close, patients have lost access to their medication and are dying, and experts warn of a surge in infections and medication-resistant HIV strains.
New modelling of UNAIDS data by The Independent reveals the true impact of dismantling PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which has been the cornerstone of global efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS, showing that if funding is not reinstated and no alternatives are found, the HIV/AIDS death toll will actually triple by 2030 — reaching the devastating levels seen in the 1990s and early 2000s.
“This film captures the devastating impact that the US aid cuts are already having on some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people”, says Trew.
“While the world had been on track to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, the UN now estimates that, should this aid not be reinstated, there will be four million additional AIDS deaths and six million additional HIV infections over the next five years.”
The documentary is now available to stream on The Independent. Further reporting from Trew on the impact of these cuts is available to read here and here.
