The
US government plans to end financial support for Gavi, an organisation
that helps buy vaccines for children in developing countries.
According
to a document, which has been seen by multiple news organisations, the
Trump administration is also planning to scale back efforts to combat
malaria — a highly dangerous infection spread by mosquito bites.
The
administration will continue to fund some grants that pay for drugs
that treat HIV and tuberculosis (TB) and provide food aid to nations
where civil wars and natural disasters are occurring, the document —
first reported by the New York Times — showed.
The US Health and Human Services Department did not respond to a request for comment, according to news agency Reuters.
The US
government has drastically scaled back foreign aid since Donald Trump
took office, with around 80 per cent of US Agency for International
Development contracts abruptly cut.
The
281-page document lists 898 programs that will remain active, totalling
US$78 billion ($123 billion) in spending — much of which it says has
already been disbursed.
In a statement on X, Gavi said that US support for its operations was "vital".
"With
US support, we can save over 8 million lives over the next 5 years and
give millions of children a better chance at a healthy, prosperous
future," it said in a statement on X.
The announcement would dramatically undermine global efforts to combat preventable diseases in the developing world.
Mr Trump's US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is a notable vaccine sceptic, and presides over the country's sprawling, trillion-dollar health agencies.
Reuters
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