Hospital admissions for severe malnutrition in Somali displacement camps have surged 83% over last year, with 47% of children in Baidoa's camps found malnourished and more than 100 children dying at Doctors Without Borders' hospital there in the first half of 2026, the Washington Post reports. The Trump administration has cut virtually all aid to Somalia.

Dropping by 25% since 2024, U.S. HIV/AIDS funding has fallen by $2.1 billion and is now routing through government-to-government agreements that require recipient countries to put up their own money. The Economist reports that thirty-four countries have signed on, while Ghana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are refusing over what they call unreasonable demands.

The State Department has released nearly $2 billion in health and humanitarian funding through multilateral agencies, a partial reversal of the cuts that followed USAID's dismantling. The New York Times reports the awards carry unusual political conditions.

At the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian advocates said they anticipated the dramatic drop in donor funding for HIV years in advance. The Guardian reports that speakers urged other countries to pursue "health sovereignty" through measures like domestic drug production and earmarked taxes.

Experts at the Aids 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro warn that lenacapavir will not reach the people who need it most, The Guardian reports. USAID once provided 73% of donor-funded HIV prevention resources globally, and its dismantling has gutted the peer outreach and harm reduction networks that connect high-risk populations to those services.

The abrupt shutdown of USAID left an irrigation upgrade unfinished in the Kenyan village of Kimorigo, contributing to the area's worst flooding in at least a decade and a surge in illness, according to a Bloomberg investigation.

The dismantling of USAID last year continues to affect the federal response to a record number of cyclosporiasis infections, following the loss of nearly $30 million for the CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria.

After the dismantling of USAID eliminated an estimated 35,000 in Nepal, around 100 LGBTQ+ former aid workers who once ran HIV outreach programs have turned to sex work to survive, walking the same highways where they previously distributed condoms and administered tests, the AP reports.

A new report from amfAR finds that the dismantling of USAID and the cancellation of thousands of global health grants have forced PEPFAR-funded organizations across dozens of countries to close clinics, lay off staff, and cut services — with the sharpest damage falling on programs serving young women, orphans, and children, the AP reports.

New amfAR research finds that no part of PEPFAR has escaped Trump's funding cuts, despite administration pledges to protect lifesaving care. A survey of 166 organizations across 46 countries due to receive PEPFAR funding found more than half had at least one terminated award, resulting in over 1,700 closed clinics and service sites and more than 16,000 full-time staff losing their jobs, The Guardian reports.

CNN reports that the federal response to a growing cyclospora outbreak has been hobbled by the dismantling of USAID, which stripped nearly $30 million from the CDC's Division of Parasitic Diseases and Malaria and helped shrink its specialized parasite lab team from 11 staff to three. Former officials say the resulting delays show how cuts sold as savings on foreign aid have degraded domestic outbreak response.

After the U.S. abruptly withdrew most foreign aid and dismantled USAID, communities are building and staffing their own village health posts to keep basic care within reach, Science reports. But with additional cuts from other donors, it remains unclear whether such grassroots efforts can scale.

In an interview with David Remnick, former USAID global health leader Atul Gawande estimates that the agency's dismantling by DOGE has already caused roughly 700,000 deaths.

Christianity Today visits four rural mission hospitals in East Africa to find that while the U.S. still funds antiretroviral drugs through PEPFAR, the "America First" strategy has stripped out nearly everything else — home visits, testing, health worker salaries, and community support groups.

At a Health Journalism 2026 panel, veteran reporters warned that as sweeping USAID cuts reshape global health programs, many of the resulting humanitarian stories may go unreported — and American audiences may never realize what they're missing. 

After dismantling USAID, the Trump administration is offering African governments hundreds of millions in bilateral health funding — but with conditions attached, including cost-sharing requirements and demands for access to patient data and pathogen samples. The BBC reports that while 32 countries have signed the health MOUs, Ghana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia have refused over sovereignty concerns. 

Four former directors of USAID's conflict management office write in The Hill that the DOGE-driven dismantling of USAID, the U.S. Institute for Peace, and the State Department's Bureau for Conflict and Stabilization Operations has left the U.S. without the peacebuilding and health response infrastructure needed for emergencies like the Ebola outbreak in eastern DRC. 

Aid agencies and infectious disease specialists tell CNBC that the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda — now the third-largest on record, with more than 1,400 confirmed cases and 440 deaths — has been made significantly worse by the dismantling of USAID, which has depleted health systems of supplies, cold chain infrastructure, and staff while eroding community trust needed for contact tracing.

Elon Musk has doubled down on disputing that DOGE's dismantling of USAID caused deaths, even claiming deaths in Africa decreased after funding was cut. Forbes reports that U.S. humanitarian funding was slashed to $3.7 billion from $14 billion between 2024 and 2025, with modeling projecting anywhere from 780,000 deaths to more than 14 million total deaths by 2030.

After Elon Musk challenged critics to name a single person killed by his dismantling of USAID, columnist Nicholas Kristof responds with specific cases he documented arguing that the aid cuts under Musk and Trump, are unquestionably costing children's lives.