The suspension of financial aid to African countries to lessen their health and sanitation problems has created the threat of epidemics in countries like Guinea, medical sources emphasized.

Conakry.- This aid, valued at about $15 million last year, disrupted efforts to combat endemic epidemics like malaria by making diagnostic testing, drug supplies, and other health activities impossible.

Washington also reduced its contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, which finances efforts to prevent these diseases.

Last February, United Nations (UN) agencies offered a grim assessment of the global impact of the deep cuts to humanitarian funding by the new US administration of Donald Trump.

Amid uncertainty about future US funding, these UN organizations reiterated the immediate impact on people at risk in the world’s poorest settings. (PL)