Zambia: One grim example of how Trump has slashed anti-AIDS efforts

Zambia’s anti-HIV program, which saved 100,000s of lives, has begun to crumble.

Lewis Chifuta, a patient with advanced H.I.V. disease, in the men’s ward at the Mpongwe mission hospital in northern Zambia. (Photo courtesy of The New York Times)
Dire predictions immediately followed the Trump administration’s decision in early 2025 to impose drastic cuts on foreign aid in general and the President’s  Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief  (Pepfar) in particular.
The Lancet medical journal forecast that Trump administration cuts in USAID funding “would result in approximately 1,776,539 all-age deaths and 689,900 deaths in children younger than 5 years” in 2025 alone.
Over the coming five years, the Lancet said,  “the complete defunding of U.S.A.I.D. would cause an estimated 2,450,000 all-age deaths annually, leading to a total of 14,051,750 excess all-age deaths and 4,537,157 excess under-5 deaths by 2030.”
In fact, many such deaths have occurred, though the magnitude of the disaster is hard to see since it is spread across dozens of nations where news coverage is sparse. The disaster may fall short of the Lancet’s forecast, but it remains a tragedy.
That is apparent in individual nations that depended on US support for anti-AIDS efforts. For example, The New York Times has taken a close look at what is happening in Zambia. 
The Times reporter who wrote the Zambia article commented on what she found: