US foreign aid cuts could result in over 1.4 crore preventable deaths globally: Lancet

STEEP funding cuts to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) could result in over 1.4 crore preventable deaths by 2030, a third of which could be among children aged under five, according to a study published in The Lancet journal.

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The study said the fund cuts could reverse decades of progress and that for many low and middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a "global pandemic" or a "major armed conflict”.

In March, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Donald Trump's administration has cancelled 83 per cent of all programmes at USAID, the world's largest funding agency for humanitarian and development aid.

The cuts "risk abruptly halt-ing -- and even reversing -- two decades of progress in health among vulnerable populations,” study coordinator Davide Rasella, research professor at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain, said.

"For many lowand middle-income countries, the resulting shock would be comparable in scale to a global pandemic or a major armed conflict," Rasella said.