In the wake of massive U.S. cuts to foreign aid, the tiny country of Lesotho in southern Africa faces deep uncertainty and worry over its HIV-positive residents. Lesotho long had the world’s second-highest HIV infection rate. Over years, with nearly $1 billion in U.S. aid, Lesotho patched together a health network efficient enough to slow the epidemic’s spread. But when President Donald Trump froze foreign assistance and dismantled USAID, chaos and confusion followed in Lesotho. Clinics shut down, workers were let go, and patients stopped treatment. Much of Lesotho’s system to treat hundreds of thousands of HIV-positive residents is crumbling, and experts are sounding alarms, even as some U.S.-funded programs are temporarily reinstated.
