Mexico’s President Must Review Funding Cuts To Maintain Country’s Leading Example Of HIV Treatment, Opinion Piece Says

Foreign Policy: Mexico Is Setting a Global Example on HIV Treatment
Ann Deslandes, freelance writer and researcher

“…’HIV in Mexico is once again a time bomb that will explode.’ That’s how Aram Barra described the current trajectory of the immunodeficiency virus in the country at the International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science in Mexico City in July. The public health activist and program officer at Open Society Foundations was specifically referring to February’s deep funding cuts to civil society organizations. … In February, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that government funding for social programs would cease. … López Obrador’s commitment to pulling certain financial levers to stamp out corruption is laudable and needed for Mexico, as is the prospect of fine-tuning social policy to ensure greater benefit flows to those who need it. But the consistent provision of important health and social services for the Mexican people, along with the many migrants who continue to pass through Mexico on their way to the United States, could be the cost. … If the president does not want a ticking ‘time bomb’ to explode under his administration, he must make sure that these community organizations are not disadvantaged by the recent changes in policy and find a way to return the government resources these groups had been relying on. Other parts of Mexico’s HIV response … are still leading the world — it is not too late to reverse course to keep key populations supported and keep the rate of HIV infections down” (11/13).

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