USAID Dismantlement Contributes to Health Care Clinics Closure in Sudan

 Doctors Without Borders posted on 8 September 2026 an article titled "Aid Cuts Leave Millions Without Health Care Across Sudan."

The dismantling of USAID in 2025 resulted in the end of funding for many organizations working in Sudan.  Although the United States continues to be the single largest donor to Sudan, many of the health care providers have been unable to find alternative funding and, as a result, health facilities are shutting down.  The few remaining hospitals are reaching the breaking point, and local clinics are going unfunded.  An estimated 37 percent of Sudan's health facilities are out of service.

USAID Dismantlement Has Resulted in Deaths

 The New York Times published on 1 July 2026 a commentary titled "U.S.A.I.D. Cuts Killed People.  That's the Truth" by Nicholas Kristof.  

Elon Musk, who at the beginning of the Trump administration ran DOGE, the organization that dismantled the US Agency for International Development, insists "there is not even a single dead child" as a result of the actions by DOGE.  

Nicholas Kristof, who has met with family members in Africa of dead children, begs to differ.  In addition, studies by university researchers and by Lancet, a British medical journal, estimate that deaths due to USAID financial cuts are in the hundreds of thousands.   

Dismantlement of USAID Projected to Result in Many Deaths

 CNN published on 4 February 2026 an article titled "One Year on from Dismantlement of USAID, Study Projects that Global Aid Cuts Could Lead to 9.4 Million Deaths by 2030" by Lauren Kent.

The Trump administration dismantled the US Agency for International Development (USAID) early last year.  A new study by the Lancet medical journal projects that the human toll of these aid cuts could lead to at least 9.4 million additional deaths by 2030.

The Center for Global Development reports that the dismantlement of USAID may have led to between 500,000 to 1,000,000 lives lost in 2025 compared to previous years.  

USAID Shutdown Has Severe Impact on African Health Programs

 The Washington Post published on 10 October 2025 an article titled "Medical Supply Shortages Follow U.S. Aid Cuts in Africa" by Tobi Raji and Katharine Houreld.  

Africa has reportedly lost more than $8 Billion in funding since the Trump administration dismantled USAID earlier this year, The impact has been especially significant in the case of US-financed health care programs.  The article emphasizes the damage on programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Sudan, and Zimbabwe.

Dismantling USAID: The Economist Charts Impacts

 The Economist published on 15 July 2025 an article titled "Five Charts Explain Trump's Cuts to Foreign Aid."

The Economist displays in five charts the impact of the dismantlement of USAID.  In terms of impact as a percent of gross national income, Africa is the most affected continent.  Funding cuts by sector primarily impact infrastructure (100%), basic education (99%), administrative costs (94%), and maternal and child health (92%).

The least affected programs are economic growth (12%), refugees and IDPs (13%), and HIV/AIDS (20%).  Projected global deaths in 2026 due to the health care cuts total 973,000.  

Cutting USAID Disease Prevention Programs in Ethiopia is Penny Wise and Pound Foolish

 The Hill published on 24 March 2025 an article titled "The Savings from Shuttering USAID Aren't Worth the Global Costs" by Neil Schluger, New York Medical College.

The author describes the fallout from the absence of USAID participation in and funding of a program in Ethiopia to control tuberculosis.  The amount of money saved is miniscule while the consequences are deadly.

US Aid Reductions Endanger African Health Care

 The Associated Press published on 13 March 2025 an article titled "US Aid Cuts Are Hurting Africa's Ability to Respond to Disease Outbreaks" by Rodney Muhumuza.

The Director General of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jean Kaseya, said recent cuts in US foreign aid are hurting Africa's capacity to respond to disease outbreaks such as Ebola and mpox and are leaving health systems in Africa in disarray.

Faith-based Organizations Challenge Trump Administration's USAID Dismantlement

 The Washington Post published on 6 March 2025 an article titled "Trump's Foreign Aid Demolition Hits Major Christian Charities" by John Hudson, Missy Ryan, and Katharine Houreld.

Albert Gombis, a political appointee in the State Department, met on 28 February with about 35 representatives of faith-based groups that included World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, Christian Aid, Food for the Hungary, Compassion International, National Association of Evangelicals, and Islamic Relief.  They relayed the painful effects on their organizations stemming from Trump's cancellation of 90 percent of all USAID contracts, the termination of more than 1,600 personnel, and the placement of almost all of USAID's 10,000 strong workforce on administrative leave.  

The article also reported that Trump's chief dismantler of USAID, Peter Marocco, met with lawmakers in a closed-door briefing where he said USAID was a "money-laundering scheme" that had lost its way.  He added he was examining whether foreign assistance is even constitutional.  When asked if he was among the rioters at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, Marocco responded that is not the subject of the meeting.   

Russia's Disinformation Campaign in Africa

 The New York Times published on 14 October 2024 an article titled "Russia's Latest Target in Africa: U.S.-funded Anti-Malaria Programs" by Elian Peltier.

A Russian disinformation program is attacking US-funded health care programs in Africa to weaken Western interests there.  The disinformation can usually be traced back to someone close to the Russian government or Russian institutions.

Horn of Africa Faces New Malaria Threat

 The New York Times published on 1 October 2023 an article titled "An Invasive Mosquito Threatens Catastrophe in Africa" by Stephanie Nolen.

The Anopheles stephensi malaria-carrying species of mosquito, which is resistant to all insecticides, has adapted to thrive in urban environments and survive in dry seasons. It is breeding across the continent and its spread is inevitable.  

China's Health Care Program in Africa

 The South China Morning Post published on 11 July 2023 an article titled "China Builds on 60-year Record to Strengthen Medical Ties with Africa" by Jevans Nyabiage.  

The article reviews the development of China's health care programs in Africa since the assignment of a medical team to Algeria in 1963,        

China Close to Eliminating Malaria in Comoro Islands

 The China Africa Project posted on 18 September 2020 a report titled "Combatting Malaria in the Comoros Islands: How China Almost Got It Right" by Esther Ejiroghene Ajari, director of The TriHealthon, a youth-led nonprofit promoting health equity in Africa.  

Seven years after beginning a project to eliminate malaria from the three islands comprising the Comoro Islands, Moheli and Anjouan have been declared malaria-free.  The project is ongoing on Grand Comore.  The project is widely regarded as China's most successful health project in Africa.  There has been a controversy over the medication, Artequick, used to eliminate malaria.  Although approved by health agencies in China and the Comoros, it has not yet received certification by the World Health Organization.

Chinese Efforts to Combat Malaria in Kenya

The Atlantic published on 4 July 2019 an article titled "China Is Leading the Next Step in Fighting Malaria in Africa" by Jacob Kushner.

Chinese researchers are undertaking a mass drug administration that involves giving antimalarial pills to every man, woman, and child in a given area at the same time. The idea is to wipe out malaria among humans, starting in Kenya. But the program also has critics.

China Works To Eradicate Malaria in Comoro Islands

Xinhua published on 24 April 2018 an article titled "Hunting Down Malaria in Comoros--Another China-Africa Story" by Yao Yuan and Wen Hao.

A team of Chinese scientists began in 2007 a program to eradicate malaria from the Comoro Islands. By 2016, malaria had been effectively eliminated from the islands of Moheli and Anjouan and is on schedule to be eliminated from Grande Comore by 2020. By any account, this is a good news story for both the Comoro Islands and China.

China's Medical Aid in Africa

The Diplomat posted on 14 March 2018 an article titled "China's Medical Aid in Africa" by Long Wang, Xiangya Hospital at Central South University, and Joshua Bateman.

This is a generally positive account of China's public health program in Africa that began in 1963 with the sending of a Chinese medical team to Algeria.

China's Health Assistance to Africa: Opportunism or Altruism?

Globalization and Health published on 3 December 2016 an article titled "China's Health Assistance to Africa: Opportunism or Altruism?" by Shuang Lin, Liangmin Gao, Melissa Reyes, Feng Cheng, Joan Kaufman, and Wafaa M. El-Sadr.

The article concluded that after many decades of Chinese health assistance to African countries, there is a paucity of information regarding its scale, scope and impact. A key limitation of China's health aid approach is the absence of a cohesive approach and a coherent strategy of China's health diplomacy. Funding from Columbia University supported this study.

China-Cameroon Public Health Cooperation

The China-Africa Reporting Project at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg published on 7 April 2016 an article titled "China's Role in Improving Public Health in Cameroon" by Manyanye Paul Ikome, communication and public relations manager at the Cameroon Development Corporation.

The article discusses China's engagement in the public health sector in Cameroon with a focus on pediatrics, malaria, traditional medicine, and China's "Brightness Action" campaign in Africa.

Ethiopia: Cost-Effectiveness of Medical Interventions

The Lancet published in its May 2015 edition an article titled "Health Gains and Financial Risk Protection Afforded by Public Financing of Selected Interventions in Ethiopia: An Extended Cost-effectiveness Analysis."

The researchers looked at health gains (deaths averted) and financial risk protection afforded (cases of poverty averted) by nine interventions that the government of Ethiopia intends to make universally available. 

On a cost-effective basis, the interventions that avert the most deaths, in order, are measles vaccination, pneumococcal conjugate vaccination, and caesarean section surgery.  The interventions that avert the most cases of poverty are caesarean section surgery, tuberculosis treatment, and hypertension treatment.

The authors also included in the study rotavirus vaccination, diarrhoea treatment, malaria treatment, and pneumonia treatment. 

China's Engagement in Global Health

The Lancet, a medical journal that began in London in 1823, published on 30 August 2014 an informative article titled "China's Distinctive Engagement in Global Health" by Peilong Liu, Department of Global Health, and a number of other experts.  You can register for free to access the entire 10-page article.  The 30 August issue is devoted to health and medical issues concerning China.

The authors note that China has made rapid progress in four key areas of global health.  China's health aid deploys medical teams, constructs facilities, donates drugs and equipment, trains personnel, and supports malaria control mainly in Africa and Asia.  China's approach to global health is distinctive and based on its unique history, comparative strength, and policies driven by several governmental ministries. 

Africa and Counterfeit Drugs: The China Connection

The Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy article on 29 May 2013 titled "Africa's Malaria Battle: Fake Drug Pipeline Undercuts Progress."  The fake medicine includes a proliferation of bogus malaria drugs in Africa that threatens to undermine years of progress in combating the disease.  A study published in 2012 found that 35 percent of 2,300 malaria drug samples tested in Sub-Saharan Africa were of "poor quality"--either fake expired or badly made.  Much of the bogus medicine has been traced to China, although it is difficult to pinpoint the manufacturers who sell their products through large, opaque networks. 

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