“Sequestration”, the popular buzzword going around Washington, is the term for a series of automatic spending cuts that went into effect after Congress and the White House failed to agree on a budget for the 2013 fiscal year. While much of the conversation about sequestration has highlighted Washington gridlock and the heated and partisan nature of the negotiation process, the $85 billion dollars in sequestration cuts has caused a number of organizations to worry that the cuts could negatively impact global health programs.

Using figures from a March 1 report by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the group amFar, (The American Foundation for AIDS Research) estimates that the required 5% cuts to discretionary government spending would have the following negative impact on global health programs:

• HIV/AIDS treatment for 162,200 people will not be available, potentially leading to 37,000 more AIDS-related deaths and 72,800 more children becoming orphans.
• Funding for food, education, and livelihood assistance will not be available for 225,000 children.
• 1.16 million fewer insecticide-treated mosquito nets will be procured, leading to over 3,000 deaths due to malaria; 1.9 million fewer people will receive treatment.
• 35,300 fewer people with tuberculosis (TB) will receive treatment, leading to 4,200 more deaths due to TB; 190 fewer people with multidrug-resistant TB will receive treatment.

In addition, amFar estimates that sequestration cuts in contributions to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization will mean 789,500 fewer pentavalent vaccines for children, resulting in 8,400 more deaths from preventable diseases. The group also states that required sequestration cuts to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria would mean:

• 1.5 million fewer insecticide-treated mosquito nets will be available, leading to 4,000 deaths from malaria.
• 54,000 fewer TB patients will receive treatment, leading to more than 6,400 TB deaths.
• An additional 59,800 people will not be treated for HIV/AIDS.

Another group, The Global Health Technologies Coalition, notes that organizations like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), all of which fund research and development on projects like HIV/AIDS, and malaria and meningitis vaccinations, will have budgets slashed by significant amounts because of the required sequestration cuts. The result will be an interruption in research projects, including late-stage projects for vaccines that could help millions of people. They argue that such an interruption is not merely an inconvenience, but a potential health risk.

Both groups also argue that while sequestration cuts could negatively impact global health programs in these ways, they would have very little positive impact on the US deficit or debt reduction because spending on global health programs amounts to only .01% of the US Gross Domestic Product.

– Délice Williams

Source: National Journal,amFar,Global Health Technologies Coalition
Photo: University of Washington