Through Global South, USA’s death causes fears of malaria, tb again | News of poverty and development

Taipei, Taiwan – Until recently, it seemed that Mekong Podregia Mekong in Southeast Asia was on its way to achieve its goal of removal of malaria by 2030.

Named after a river of 4,900 kilometers (3000 kilometers) that passes from southwestern China through Mjanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the area has long influenced the disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes.

From 2010 to 2023, the number of cases caused by the most common malaria parasite decreased from almost half a million to less than 248,000, according to the global fund, an organization that funded the United States Government, which is the largest finance of the program in the world to prevent, treatment and care for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Nearly 229,000 of these cases were reported in one country, Mjanmar, where the disease exploded by the outbreak of the civil war in 2021 and the displacement of millions of people.

As an administration of US President Donald Trump seriously reduces the side of help With the effective dismantling of the US International Development Agency (USAID), the health campaign is now afraid that progress will be achieved in Meking to lose after officials targeting the initiative against the Mynmar Anti-Malary to Remove.

“We threw all our resources on [Myanmar]But stopping this, the malaria will shed in Southeast Asia and Podregia Mekong, “said Alexandra Wharton-Smith, who worked on a USAID’s myanmar program, while Trump’s administration released him, said Al Jazeera of Thailand.

The Mjanmar Government estimated that cases have increased by 300 percent since the beginning of the Civil War, but Wharton-Smith said that independent research shows that the real figure is more than double.

New cases also appear in parts of Thailand who have not seen malaria for years as refugees and migrants from Mjanmar cross the border, and will probably increase more after a suspension of the disease fighting program, said Wharton-Smith.

The return of the financing of the Malaria in Mekong is just one of the many examples of a decrease that raises the alarm among humanitarian workers in the global south, where USAID collapse has been threatening for decades of progress in health crises such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, EBOLA and Malters.

On Wednesday he said Trump’s administration is the highest official of the United Nations for Humanitarian questions delivered the “seismic shock” to the global assistance sector.

“Many will die because this help is dried,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN chief for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (Ocha), at a press conference on Monday.

Once the world’s best source of international aid, USAID should have reduced 5,200 of its 6,200 programs – About 83 percent of the total – according to US secretary Marco Rubio.

“5200 contracts now canceled tens of billions of dollars in ways that have not served (in some cases even harm), the fundamental national interests of the United States,” Rubio said on Monday at X.

The remaining contracts will be overseas the American State Department, he said.

The announcement limited six weeks of restlessness for an agency that began on January 20th when Trump published a 90-day “break” to US development assistance.

Thousands of employees of USAIDs, performers and auxiliary staff They were put on leave or projects around the world received a “stopping work order” and stopped.

There was a confusion as the non -governmental organizations banned themselves to fill in the budget defects and realize which programs were qualified to announce the renunciation of life -saving partners.

Last week, the Supreme Court ordered Trump’s administration to comply with lower court judgments Government order To publish $ 2 billion in salary owed to partners and performers of USAIDs from before a break.

On Monday, the federal judge re -invited Trump’s administration to release “illegally” trapped funds, claiming that the US Congress had already applied them for a certain purpose.

American development assistance was the main target of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) and was led by Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a close advisor to Trump.

Catherine Kyobutungi, Executive Director of the African Center for Population Research and Health Research in Nairobi, Kenya, said that, although she agreed that USAID should be reformed, Trump’s administration in the agency showed “a complete lack of understanding in the way the world functions.”

“We did the case that the USAID funding mechanism was very, very inefficient. There was not too much attention that influenced, long -term sustainability and similar things, so it was not the perfect system. The problem is that you do not increase the imperfect system overnight, “Kyobutungi told Al Jazeera.

“It’s not just that people appear and betray medical resistance pills, there is a whole structure” for humanitarian aid, Kyobutungi said.

“It’s complete disrespect for how things work, how the world works, how projects are running, it’s just astonishing.”

Politicized help

Although the full impact of the USAID reduction is yet to be seen, a humanitarian worker in a leading non -profit organization that acts on malnutrition in several regions, including Africa and the Middle East, said that any delay in financing could be deadly.

Among those who are at most risk are children treated in intensive care units at emergency feeding cells for complications such as organs and hypoglycemia, said a humanitarian worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“The global humanitarian community has thousands of stabilization centers around the world, supported by the US Government,” said the Al Jazeera person, seeking not to be named for fear of the consequences.

“This is key because with all the ups and downs of people waiting for renunciation requests to continue programs, problems with financial course … We cannot allow these centers to be closed for even one day. Because if the lights go out in these centers, we see children die.”

“So far, it was never a political question. Feeding hunger for children was a two -sided question, and humanitarian aid was apolitical. Now they politicized him,” the worker added.

It is also not clear that the main American projects such as the president’s emergency plan for the help of AIDS (Pepfar) and the presidential initiative for malaria in the future.

Founded by Republican President George W Bush 20 years ago, projects are credited to rescue more than 32 million lives, according to the common program of the United Nations for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and archived USAIDs.

They are both funded by Congress, but implements them through government agencies such as USAIDs and US centers for the control and prevention of diseases, which was also targeted by Doge’s cost reduction measures.

Unaids, the main partner of Pepfar, said last month that she had been informed that the US government had immediately abolished her relationship. The agency said HIV programs in at least 55 countries they reported on a decrease in funds.

Supports for UNICEF programs that target Polio were also abolished, according to the UN, such as the funds for the UN Fund, which oversees reproductive and sexual health programs.

USAID explicitly denied renunciations for all programs associated with family planning or so -called “gender ideology”.

Non-governmental organizations in Asia, Africa and elsewhere are now struggling to fill in financing defects and face major disorders in service, as their “stopping order” have been made during the 90-day “Pause”.

Rubio has done a little latest at the USAID to clear the confusion, while the food that finances USAID and essential items remain locked in warehouses, according to two sources of non-governmental organizations.

Return to Mekong, Wharton-Smith, a former Advisor of the USAIDs of Myjanmar Program, said she was worried that in the last two years she could turn into a Mijar border across the border with Mjanmar in the last two years.

“We will have more malaria where there was no malaria before. Many people have lost their immunity, so that might mean death,” she said.

“What happens when we stopped treating tens of thousands of people because of malaria? In a few weeks the rainy season comes and then summer. It will be a disaster.”