The Independent has announced the release of a new documentary, Death Sentence: The real cost of Trump’s aid cuts on HIV, a film about the impact of the Trump administration’s aid cuts on HIV and AIDS treatment.
Presented by The Independent’s Chief International Correspondent Bel Trew, the publisher says Death Sentence goes to the hardest hit areas of Uganda and Zimbabwe, and reveals in detail the impact of the Trump administration’s abrupt funding freeze to its global HIV response programmes. Despite a State Department waiver for lifesaving-care reportedly in place, funding is still not getting through: AIDS clinics are having to close, patients have lost access to their medication and are dying, and experts warn of a surge in infections and medication-resistant HIV strains, the publisher continued.
The Independent says new modelling of UNAIDS data reveals the true impact of dismantling PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which has been the cornerstone of global efforts to tackle HIV and AIDS, showing that if funding is not reinstated and no alternatives are found, the HIV/AIDS death toll will actually triple by 2030 – reaching the levels seen in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Death Sentence hears first hand from those on the frontlines of the epidemic, global health experts, and President Trump himself:
- The US President told The Independent that the United States was the “only country” helping the fight against HIV/AIDS and had spent “billions and billions of dollars” to combat the disease. He called on other countries to do more to tackle HIV and AIDS, singling out France and Germany (who have their own HIV response programmes).
- When asked about concerns that the US waiver on life-saving care is not working on the ground, President Trump told The Independent “that shouldn’t be happening” and urged the countries concerned “to act properly on the waiver”.
- The Independent spoke to epidemiologists who warn the number of HIV patients developing resistance to their antiretrovirals medications could double in the coming years if disruptions to drug regimens continue and infections soar.
- Academics working on US-funded HIV programmes told The Independent their forecasts show some 35,000 estimated deaths have already been linked to the sweeping freezes to HIV funding.
- The Independent, accessing UN AIDS modelling data, reports there will be an additional 3.4 million children who will be orphaned by 2030 (would have lost a parent due to AIDS during their life time). The UN predicts globally there will be one million additional children infected by HIV/AIDs by 2030 due to mother-child transmission.
“This film captures the devastating impact that the US aid cuts are already having on some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people,” says Bel Trew, chief international correspondent, The Independent. “While the world had been on track to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, the UN now estimates that, should this aid not be reinstated, there will be four million additional AIDS deaths and six million additional HIV infections over the next five years.”
Death Sentence joins The Independent’s roster of documentaries and marks the latest production from The Independent’s content hub, Independent Studio, which launched in April.
Previous releases include Cancelled, interrogating the rise and fall of Aung San Suu Kyi; The A-Word, an unflinching look at the fallout from the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade; and The Body in the Woods, a damning expose exploring Ukraine’s search for the missing during Russia’s invasion.
These documentaries sit within Independent Studio, which puts independent, trusted voices at the forefront of its output, and aims to drive deep engagement with audiences through original video formats, podcasts, newsletters and more, added the publisher. Independent Studio spans verticals from entertainment and lifestyle to sport and current affairs and lives on-site, across major platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, and in email inboxes.
Death Sentence: The real cost of Trump’s aid cuts on HIV is available to stream on The Independent here.
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