Following PEPFAR cuts, vulnerable Ugandans are dying, providers say

In Uganda, HIV service providers said the most vulnerable among the people they supported are now beginning to die following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to global HIV/AIDS programs.

That seemingly includes Lydia Nabirye. She stopped taking her HIV medicines and died outside the eastern Ugandan town of Kamuli on March 26 after a U.S.-supported mental health program helping her maintain her treatment was eliminated. She was 28 years old.

Her passing happened just three weeks after Elon Musk, who oversaw the U.S. aid cuts, posted that “no one had died as a result of a brief pause to do a sanity check on foreign aid funding. No one.”

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