Argentines living with HIV and doctors say spending cuts under President Javier Milei have hampered treatment of the disease. The concern is that there will be a shortage of medicines and tests.
Milei is pushing a major austerity initiative aimed at reducing the size of the state and reversing a deep fiscal deficit he inherited. This has led to budgets being frozen or capped for many public sector services.
The budget for free HIV/AIDS treatment, where Argentina is a regional pioneer, fell by 67% in real terms in 2024 and is expected to fall by 46% in 2025. This has put pressure on the supply of essential medicines and could leave thousands of people without care in the next year, experts said.
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a chronic condition caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Most people with HIV can live almost normal lives and not suffer from AIDS-related illnesses if they receive effective early treatment.
“I have been taking expired medication since May. Now in October they gave me medication until February, which expired in November,” said Claudio Mariani, 59, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1993.
“In my case, for example, I am taking the viral load test now, but I don’t know when I will have the results,” he added.
According to official government data, there are around 140,000 people living with HIV in Argentina. Around half of this number depends on public sector treatment, according to the latest Epidemiological Bulletin from the Argentine Ministry of Health.
The country’s government did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Negative expectation
The Huésped Foundation, which works to ensure access to treatment for people with HIV/AIDS, said that more than 9,000 people would have their treatment interrupted by 2025 due to spending cuts.
The Argentine government’s budget project projects an increase in spending on the free HIV treatment service to increase from 21 billion to 23 billion pesos ($23 million. However, with the inflation rate above 100%, this means a significant spending cuts in real terms.
This could lead to patients going undiagnosed, and thus, there could be an increase in hospital costs, experts said.
“These people need hospitalization, treatment for infections and a series of medical care that could be avoided if the diagnosis was made earlier,” explained Leandro Cahn, executive director of the Huésped Foundation.
“All these cuts, far from saving money, will generate more costs”, he explained.
Data from the Argentine Ministry of Health show that this year the number of condoms distributed by the government fell from 503,460 in the previous year to 209,328. Drops in the supply of reagents and rapid tests are also expected.
“Treatment is something permanent,” local HIV expert Luis Trombetta told Reuters, explaining that this consistency has kept the death rate low. “It cannot be replaced or stopped.”
This content was originally published in HIV patients in Argentina fear impact of Milei’s spending cuts on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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