Zambia accepts a revised US health deal that Zimbabwe and Ghana have turned down
Lusaka says clauses on sharing patient samples were removed. Harare called the terms lopsided and a breach of sovereignty, and now risks losing HIV funding.
PANM — Zambia has finalised a health funding agreement with the United States worth $1.5 billion over five years, after negotiating narrower terms on the sharing of medical data, New Zimbabwe reports. Zimbabwe has rejected a similar deal, and Ghana is also refusing to sign.
Zambia's health minister, Roma Chilengi, announced that the agreement had been concluded and was due to be signed on Thursday. Zambia is to put in $2.1 billion of its own money over the same period.
What changed
Both Zambia and Zimbabwe had objected to US demands for access to health data and biological samples. Zambia's foreign minister, Mulambo Haimbe, had at first criticised the proposal, and President Hakainde Hichilema's government had refused to link health funding to access to critical minerals.
According to the report, the revised agreement limits data sharing to the monitoring and evaluation of US-funded health programmes, and a clause requiring patient specimens to be shared has been taken out.
Zimbabwe's refusal
Zimbabwe turned down a proposal worth $367 million. Its government described the terms as lopsided and a breach of national sovereignty, objecting to unrestricted access to epidemiological data and biological samples for research and commercial use.
The cost of refusing could be high. The report cites a projection of more than 75,000 new HIV infections in Zimbabwe within a year if support under PEPFAR, the US programme that funds HIV treatment, is withdrawn.
This report is based on reporting by New Zimbabwe, via AllAfrica.
