ByDr. Tim Sandle
SCIENCE EDITOR
DIGITAL JOURNAL
January 21, 2026
At least 85,000 people had fled Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeks to seek refuge in Burundi, officials say - Copyright AFP/File Jospin Mwisha
How are U.S. policies reshaping global health and humanitarian aid, one year into the second presidency of Donald Trump? The answers are not good according to international medical analysis.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) state they have witnessed the immense toll of these actions.
A new MSF review concludes: “Global health assistance should be guided by public health need, sound medical evidence, and epidemiology — not crude political calculations, economic extraction, or ideological coercion.”
This time last year the second Trump administration issued a series of executive actions that upended global health and humanitarian programs around the world and severely damaged global cooperation across a range of issues.
The report continues: “Clinics shut their doors. Lifesaving medicines were stranded at ports. Health workers lost their jobs. The human costs have been catastrophic.”
Furthermore, MSF is concerned about future consequences: “As we mark this moment and remember those who have been affected, we warn that the harmful consequences of the administration’s drive to reshape US foreign assistance have only just started to unfold.”
According to Mihir Mankad, global health advocacy and policy director at MSF USA: “While the world is still reeling from these cuts to aid, it’s already clear that they were merely the Trump administration’s opening salvo in reshaping global health and humanitarian assistance”.
Mankad adds: “Different administrations have always had varying priorities and agendas when it comes to global health, but what we are seeing now is a startling turn away from the fundamental principle that providing basic humanitarian care, fighting epidemics, malnutrition, and vaccine-preventable diseases, and supporting the world’s most marginalized communities are worthy causes.”
Facing the fallout from 2025
Though MSF does not accept US government funding, over the course of 2025, the medical organisation state they have seen “the devastating impact of the US government’s retreat from the communities we serve.”
As an example, in Somalia, MSF reports on aid disruptions which have brought shipments of therapeutic milk to a halt for months. The number of severely malnourished children admitted to MSF-supported facilities rose from 1,937 in the first nine months of 2024 to 3,355 in the same period in 2025.
At Baidoa Bay Regional Hospital alone, deaths among severely malnourished children increased by 44 percent in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024, with 47 percent of deaths occurring within two days of a child’s arrival due to the severity of their condition.
At Renk County Hospital in South Sudan, funding cuts abruptly forced an aid organization to stop supporting 54 hospital staff in June, leaving severe gaps in maternity care. The hospital’s MSF-run pediatric ward received more newborns with critically low birthweights and other needs due to a lack of medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. In response, MSF began supporting the maternity ward in September 2025.
In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the dismantling of USAID led to the cancellation of an order for 100,000 post-rape kits, which included medication for preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. MSF teams see extremely high levels of sexual violence in DRC — we provided care to 28,000 survivors in the first half of 2025 alone — and made unplanned purchases of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV in response to supply gaps in North Kivu.
A fundamental shift in the US approach to public health
These examples according to MAF: “signify more than budgetary cuts; they represent a fundamental shift in how the United States engages with and imagines its role in the world.”
Last September, the Trump administration released its America First Global Health Strategy, which positions the US to play a dramatically diminished role in global health. This is set to cause more problems worldwide.
January 21, 2026
At least 85,000 people had fled Democratic Republic of Congo in recent weeks to seek refuge in Burundi, officials say - Copyright AFP/File Jospin Mwisha
How are U.S. policies reshaping global health and humanitarian aid, one year into the second presidency of Donald Trump? The answers are not good according to international medical analysis.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) state they have witnessed the immense toll of these actions.
A new MSF review concludes: “Global health assistance should be guided by public health need, sound medical evidence, and epidemiology — not crude political calculations, economic extraction, or ideological coercion.”
This time last year the second Trump administration issued a series of executive actions that upended global health and humanitarian programs around the world and severely damaged global cooperation across a range of issues.
The report continues: “Clinics shut their doors. Lifesaving medicines were stranded at ports. Health workers lost their jobs. The human costs have been catastrophic.”
Furthermore, MSF is concerned about future consequences: “As we mark this moment and remember those who have been affected, we warn that the harmful consequences of the administration’s drive to reshape US foreign assistance have only just started to unfold.”
According to Mihir Mankad, global health advocacy and policy director at MSF USA: “While the world is still reeling from these cuts to aid, it’s already clear that they were merely the Trump administration’s opening salvo in reshaping global health and humanitarian assistance”.
Mankad adds: “Different administrations have always had varying priorities and agendas when it comes to global health, but what we are seeing now is a startling turn away from the fundamental principle that providing basic humanitarian care, fighting epidemics, malnutrition, and vaccine-preventable diseases, and supporting the world’s most marginalized communities are worthy causes.”
Facing the fallout from 2025
Though MSF does not accept US government funding, over the course of 2025, the medical organisation state they have seen “the devastating impact of the US government’s retreat from the communities we serve.”
As an example, in Somalia, MSF reports on aid disruptions which have brought shipments of therapeutic milk to a halt for months. The number of severely malnourished children admitted to MSF-supported facilities rose from 1,937 in the first nine months of 2024 to 3,355 in the same period in 2025.
At Baidoa Bay Regional Hospital alone, deaths among severely malnourished children increased by 44 percent in the first half of 2025, compared to the same period in 2024, with 47 percent of deaths occurring within two days of a child’s arrival due to the severity of their condition.
At Renk County Hospital in South Sudan, funding cuts abruptly forced an aid organization to stop supporting 54 hospital staff in June, leaving severe gaps in maternity care. The hospital’s MSF-run pediatric ward received more newborns with critically low birthweights and other needs due to a lack of medical care during pregnancy and childbirth. In response, MSF began supporting the maternity ward in September 2025.
In Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the dismantling of USAID led to the cancellation of an order for 100,000 post-rape kits, which included medication for preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. MSF teams see extremely high levels of sexual violence in DRC — we provided care to 28,000 survivors in the first half of 2025 alone — and made unplanned purchases of post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV in response to supply gaps in North Kivu.
A fundamental shift in the US approach to public health
These examples according to MAF: “signify more than budgetary cuts; they represent a fundamental shift in how the United States engages with and imagines its role in the world.”
Last September, the Trump administration released its America First Global Health Strategy, which positions the US to play a dramatically diminished role in global health. This is set to cause more problems worldwide.
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