Additional Context: “I have changed my medication intake schedule according to my food intake. You see, I used to be sure that I would eat three times a day, [but] now I may eat only once or twice, and so I have to change... So if I was eating in the morning at 6 a.m., now it depends.... Only when I have gotten food, is when I will take my medication.” — Transgender woman living with HIV, Tanzania

Reports reveal that vulnerable individuals in Tanzania have begun to skip doses of their antiretroviral medications, fearing that supplies will run out, they may not be able to get more, or that they will need to pay for these drugs. Some fear that they will face an impossible choice between being able to eat and being able to buy the drugs that would keep them alive.

This information was first published in an August 2025 research brief by Physicians for Human Rights entitled "On the Brink of Catastrophe: U.S. Foreign Aid Disruption to HIV Services in Tanzania and Uganda.” This research brief draws on 29 oral history interviews, including five focus groups, with doctors, nurses, peer counselors, people living with HIV, key population members, and non-governmental organization staff conducted in Tanzania and Uganda in April 2025. To document the impacts of the U.S. foreign aid freeze and HIV funding cuts, the multidisciplinary study team used purposive and snowball sampling in Moshi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Fort Portal, Kampala, Kasese, and Tororo, Uganda. Participants had explicit control over how personal information was shared, with consent and demographic forms tailored to individual preferences. 

Source: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)