DOH: Delivery of health services 'unimpeded' amid US aid freeze
![DOH: Delivery of health services 'unimpeded' amid US aid freeze](https://images.gmanews.tv/webpics/2023/06/doh_2023_06_07_17_21_39.jpg)
The Department of Health (DOH) assured the public Thursday that the delivery of health services to Filipinos will not be affected despite the temporary suspension of foreign assistance coming from the United States.
The DOH said that Health Secretary Ted Herbosa has been facilitating multilateral arrangements with various countries “to support health systems strengthening activities towards universal health care for many conditions of all Filipinos.”
“The delivery of health services by DOH and the expansion of PhilHealth benefit packages continues unimpeded,” the agency said in a statement.
Shortly after his inauguration, US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day pause to review if aid allocation was aligned with his foreign policy, prompting the US State Department to issue a "stop-work" order for all foreign assistance.
Part of this foreign aid suspension would be the halt in distribution of drugs for HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as medical supplies for newborn babies, in countries supported by the United States Agency for International Development, based on a Reuters report.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in response, urged the US to reconsider its decision to suspend funding for HIV treatment programs in developing countries.
The WHO said that the US funding cuts, "if prolonged, could lead to rises in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally, including many in the United States of America." — Giselle Ombay/RSJ, GMA Integrated News
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