This man needs drug prevention drugs. Kenyan clinics that provide them will soon lose funding.
Ibrahim Lwingi lost both parents due to HIV -related diseases at the age of 14. The native of Nairobi describes himself as an orphan itself today – he is now 43 years old.
The virus also took the life of some of its uncles, and Lwingi, which is gay, believes that it would have been then for the revolutionary HIV prevention medication. He was able to access pre-exhibition prophylaxis (PREP) for free thanks to clinics in Kenya led by the University of Manitoba, which claims that clinics serve more than 30,000 customers.
But he could soon lose access to this drug while the administration of the American president Donald Trump moves to reduce foreign aid spending which finances the university workers awareness program, or SWOP, which has been operating in Nairobi since the early 1980s. The staff of the Swop clinics are concerned about what could mean for their customers and for the general Kenyan population.
“They mainly threw us out,” said Larry Gelmon, director of the university program based in Nairobi.
Their funding comes from the President’s emergency plan for the relief of AIDS (PEPFAR), a global health fund intended to combat HIV / AIDS launched by US President George W. Bush in 2003. Trump’s big bill and expenditure tried to reduce $ 400 million planned for Pepfar in 2026, but that funding was restored after several Republican senators opposite.
However, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration has retained more than half of the PEPFAR funds for the coming financial year. CBC News contacted the US government to comment on the funding of the PEPFAR which was not allocated, but has not heard over time for publication.
Programs that provide drugs and condoms have had a serious impact on HIV / AIDS transmissions in the country. In the mid -1990s, around 10% of Kenyans lived with HIV. In 2023, this fell to 3.2% according to UNAIDS, however, the country still has the 11th highest rate in HIV in the world.
The search for another funding
Gelmon and his team have developed a plan to avoid the complete closure of the 10 swop clinics they cross Nairobi. They will use university emergency funds – a stop gap while they are trying to obtain more funding.
“Basically, he keeps three clinics open with very skeleton staff for three months, and keeping … Our clinic of open origin for another year, again with skeletal staff,” said Gelmon.
A handful of workers will remain in each clinic, but he says that the rest will be dismissed, with opinions already sent to more than 100 staff members who will have left by the end of the month.
A freeze to financing USAID research could kill an awareness program of the University of Manitoba which saves lives in Nairobi. Deputy professor Julie Lajoie says that 50,000 people have AIDS prevention drugs thanks to the program, and now their lives are in danger.
Unless clinics find other financing options, patients like Lwingi will have access to preparation until the end of the year. He did not understand what he will do if he cannot get the medication.
“Believe me, if there is no preparation, I will be HIV positive,” he said.
“Because of the challenges I was faced with growing up, I didn’t want my son to go through the challenge of not having someone to support him,” said Lwingi, recalling what he experienced when he was a child.
Gelmon says they asked for a certain number of subsidies and sent an unsolicited financing request to Global Affairs Canada, but he explained that American financing reductions have created “fierce competition” for remaining subsidies.
He said that they were told in a letter of rejection for one of the subsidies they applied so that there were more than 300 candidates.
The problem with public clinics
Swop clinics also offer free antiretroviral therapy (art) to people living with HIV, but it will also end, explains Gelmon. Their customers will be forced to obtain their medicines in public clinics, which, according to some, have stigmatized them in the past.
Gladice Instaconge is a sex worker living with HIV who has access to the SWOP services in a clinic at the East end of Nairobi. She is also an educator peer there.
“They make fun of you,” she said, melting into tears, recalling her disturbing experiences in the country’s public health system. “Like,” how did you get this disease? “”
Joyce Adhiambo, also a sex worker living with HIV, stressed that they are only clinics – these are safe spaces for this community where people can “gain courage and force” by speaking of HIV without fear of reprisals.
“Even if you laugh at me, you cannot reverse my HIV status,” she said. “If it was not for this clinic, some of us would have died now.”
Joshua Kimani, head of swop clinical services, says that these safe spaces are crucial because Kenya is a religious country where sex work and homosexual relationships are disapproved and illegal – and these values ​​can infiltrate the public health care system.
“The problem is that the services of the public health sector are not well funded, and there are therefore a lot of gaps,” he said.
After the White House’s push to dismantle the American International Development Agency (USAID) has canceled billions of dollars in foreign aid, researchers say that global health funding should reach a hollow of 15 years. Find out more:
Currently, patients can fill out prescriptions for free, on site in the Swop clinics, which, according to Kimani, can help immediately stop the spread of sexually transmitted infections.
Without the clinics, Kimani says that sex workers need money to fill the prescriptions. “To buy medicines, they have to sell more sex. And therefore, more infections.”
Gelmon stressed that populations at risk do not live in a vacuum and could have an impact on others if they are infected.
“By preventing infection in this group, you help protect the wider community from infection.”
“ I would not want to be again Dr. Death ”
Kimani says he does not give up hope despite the cancellation of their current funding and the fact that they are not guaranteed to receive the subsidies to which they applied.
He has been doing this work in Nairobi since 1993 and said they have often faced significant challenges and layoffs, they have always managed to find funding.
“We don’t want to come back to 2004 where people died like flies,” he said. “This time, we are only signing death certificates.”
But he says things have changed in recent years, and he doesn’t want to return to that time.
“I wouldn’t want to be Dr. Death again.”
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