In testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 21, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared: “No one has died because of USAID [cuts]” — the cutoff of billions of dollars of U.S. support for global health programs.At a subsequent congressional hearing, he said, “No children are dying on my watch.”
One example is 7-year-old Babagana Bukar Mohammed, the son of widow Mariam Mohammed, who died as a result of the disruptions to U.S. foreign aid. Babagana had Sickle Cell Anemia.
NPR states: “Even in places with far more medical resources, quick medical care for sickle cell patients is critical. “We recommend that if a child has a fever, that they be seen as soon as possible, and often within the hour,” says Dr. Natasha Archer, director of the sickle cell disease program at Boston Children’s Hospital. She says there are several serious conditions Babagana could have had. One is sepsis — a life-threatening infection that can cause a fever. People with sickle cell disease are vulnerable because their spleens often don’t clean blood as well as in a healthy person. With quick access to antibiotics, sepsis can be curable, Archer says.”
The clinic was funded by USAID, or the U.S. Agency for International Development, and was the busiest medical facility in the area, seeing up to 400 patients a day. But, just over a week before Babagana arrived, the Trump administration sent the clinic a stop-work order — part of a massive pause in foreign assistance as U.S. officials reviewed contracts and programs to determine whether they should continue.
