Treatment Action Group condemns planned US withdrawal from WHO

January 21, 2025 — Treatment Action Group (TAG) is appalled by President Donald Trump’s executive order Monday signaling the United States will be withdrawing from the World Health Organization (WHO). Mark Harrington, TAG’s Executive Director, said, “This insane threat by the U.S. government threatens the lives of millions. This move will seriously undermine both domestic and global health, and we urge its swift reversal.”

As science-based activists working to end the HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and the hepatitis C Virus (HCV)  pandemics, TAG has continuously worked with the WHO toward our shared goal of eliminating these diseases and fighting for health and equity worldwide. Ending these pandemics and others demands the international commitment, coordination, and resource-sharing that the WHO enables.

These three diseases still kill over 2.4 million people per year, including over 20,000 in the United States — illustrating the clear and urgent need for global health cooperation to improve prevention, treatment, and cures. The WHO has been a critical force in accelerating the uptake of better, newer diagnostic tests, prevention interventions, vaccines, and cures for many diseases.

• By coordinating with member states on disease surveillance and monitoring, the WHO helps us understand the scope and evolution of the HIV, TB, and HCV pandemics, and clarify geographic needs. WHO reporting shows us how many people are affected by these diseases, where they live, and how to save their lives.
• The WHO provided leadership and key support to aid the global rollout of combination ART for people living with HIV, helping to accelerate coverage from around 10,000 people in developing countries in 2000, to three million in 2007, to over 30 million today.
• The WHO provides global scientific guidelines which help countries translate the results of scientific policy into programs on the ground. This guidance has recently accelerated the uptake of new, shorter, less toxic TB regimens, and better treatment for people undergoing simultaneous treatment for both TB and HIV or HCV and TB.
• The WHO brings together stakeholders and to build political will to solve problems that no single country can solve alone, such as convening the TB Vaccine Accelerator Council to expand global TB vaccine research to developing consensus among experts and communities on greater inclusion of pregnant people in TB clinical trials.

Harrington said, “The United States must carry on and expand our commitments to global health. Withdrawing from this vital international body will cripple international and domestic capacities to fight HIV, TB, HCV, and all other pandemics.”