Nepal HIV prevention efforts grind to halt after USAID pullback

A Nepalese woman (R) helps a school children to light candles as they take part in a rally in Kathmandu, 30 November 2006, on the eve of World Aids Day. By 2023, an estimated 30,300 people were living with HIV in Nepal. - AFP

KATHMANDU: Hundreds of female sex workers, gay men and people taking injectable drugs in Nepal have been deprived of pre-exposure prophylaxis since the USAID-funded programmes were suspended in the last week of January.

Pre-exposure prophylaxis is a medicine that people at risk for HIV take to prevent infection from unprotected sex or injectable drug use.