Tutu health foundation bridges Pepfar funding gap

The Desmond Tutu Health Foundation has opened a health service for transgender people affected by American foreign aid cuts. By Tamsin Metelerkamp

- Tamsin Metelerkamp

The Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF) has opened an integrated service providing gender-affirming care to transgender and gender-diverse people at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

The foundation is helping to bridge the gap in health services caused by the cut in the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding earlier this year.

The DTHF service aims to assist transgender and gender-diverse people who were accessing care at donor-funded clinics that closed because of the funding cuts. Among the services it is providing are access to pre-exposure prophylaxis, antiretrovirals and hormone replacement therapy (HRT); testing for sexually transmitted infections and HIV; and psychosocial support.

"I think it's something that's quite groundbreaking and in some ways revolutionary because of the growing backlash [against LGBTQIA+ individuals], globally and here in South Africa. And I think it's our duty, especially as clinicians, to not do any harm when it comes to transgender and gender-diverse individuals, and it's a privilege and an honour to be involved in this," said Dr Yashna Singh, principal investigator at the DTHF.

In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 90-day freeze on all foreign development assistance, pending a review. By late February, almost all Pepfar funding provided to international and South African HIV programmes through the US Agency for International Development had been permanently halted.

The cut led to the closure of three specialised clinics serving key populations in Cape Town: the Ivan Toms Centre for Health, the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI) transgender clinic and the Wits RHI sex worker clinic. Thousands of people who relied on these facilities lost access to services overnight, with many turning to state-owned clinics for continued care.