The US in a major policy shift threatens to disrupt the medical supplies for diseases, such as HIV and malaria to lower-income countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
According to sources privy to the matter and reported by Reuters, the upcoming change in medical donations through Global Health Supply Chain Program could cause shortages of life-saving medicines in some countries, raising the fears of grave health crisis.
The US State Department has sent an email to staff in 17 African countries and Haiti to halt the implementation of the supply program by May 30, 2026.
As per sources, the termination of the supplies without any transition plan could pose immediate risks to service continuity.
In an email, the State Department has not drafted any clear transition plan, in fact the organization tasked each US country office with designing its own implementation strategy and notifying Washington of potential risks or the need for additional time.
According to a spokesperson, “State Department had “not provided any technical direction to Chemonics to cease operations by May 30 or any other date.”
The six sources also revealed that the US was also involved in talks with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria regarding its access to the fund’s supply platform to procure and deliver donations for global health products in future.
Two of those sources said these discussions were meant to be focused on a November 2027 transition.
According to the sources, the new timeline is highly unrealistic as the procurement and supply of medical products to the location could take at least a year.
The Global Fund is also responsible for managing the purchase and supply of $2 billion a year in health products designed for three deadly infectious diseases.
Last year, the Trump administration released “America First Global Health Strategy”, aiming to prioritize the funding for health works, technicians and preferably to work directly with individual countries.
The rapid shifts in how the U.S. distributes international aid are already triggering global crises, resulting in critical shortages of pediatric malaria medications and significant disruptions to HIV prevention programs.
