HIV patient testing falls in South Africa after US aid cuts, data shows
A nurse takes a blood sample from a child for an HIV test while the child’s mother looks on at a clinic in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, South Africa on March 12, 2025.
Testing and monitoring of HIV patients across South Africa has fallen since the United States cut aid that funded health workers and clinics, with pregnant women, infants and youth the most affected, previously unpublished government data shows.
South Africa has the world’s highest burden of HIV, with about eight million people - one in five adults - living with the virus. The United States was funding 17 percent of the country’s HIV budget until President Donald Trump slashed aid early this year.
