Lesotho’s Health System Has Been Decimated By U.S. Funding Cuts

60% of the country’s HIV counsellors have been laid off and the country’s TB programme is faltering

• Despite previous assurances by Lesotho’s Minister of Health that the country’s HIV response will cope without US funding, senior officials say testing rates are dropping and prevention programmes have been gutted.
• Only 12% of Lesotho’s R2.2-billion health budget was government-funded last year. More than half of the budget came from USAID and the US Centre for Disease Control.
• With 93% of USAID…