Geneva: The sharp drop in funding has brought wide‑ranging upheavals to worldwide HIV prevention programmes and community‑run services, marking what a UNAIDS report calls “the most significant setback in decades” just before World AIDS Day 2025.
World AIDS Day 2025 falls annually on 1 December and serves to raise global awareness of HIV and to challenge stigma.
According to the report, 40.8 million individuals live with HIV today. In 2024 a new 1.3 million people contracted the virus, and 9.2 million remain untreated.
The sudden cuts in international HIV aid that began in 2025—following President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January—worsened the existing shortfalls. The United States, the biggest global contributor, halted its finances for PEPFAR, ending support for HIV treatment and prevention projects.
Prevention services, already stretched thin before the crisis, suffered the greatest hit. Supplies for pre‑exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) fell sharply, and voluntary medical male circumcision programmes saw a steep decline.
The breakup of programmes specifically designed for young women, deprived adolescent girls, and young women of HIV prevention, mental‑health, and gender‑based‑violence services left many more vulnerable. In 2024, new HIV infections among young women and girls aged 15‑24 reached 570 per day worldwide.
Community‑led organisations—the backbone of the HIV response and key to reaching the most at‑risk people—have suffered widespread closures. Over sixty per cent of women‑led groups paused essential programmes.
Services for key populations—including MSM, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and transgender people—were also severely impacted, the report warned.
“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we fought so hard to achieve,” said Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
“Behind every data point in this report are people—babies and children missed screening or early diagnosis, young women cut off from prevention support, and communities suddenly left without services and care. We cannot abandon them. We must overcome this disruption and transform the AIDS response,” Byanyima added.
Missing the 2030 global targets outlined in the next Global AIDS Strategy could add an extra 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030, while a prior UNAIDS study warned of more than four million additional AIDS‑related deaths and six million new infections by 2029.
Despite these setbacks, several countries have moved quickly to close funding gaps, demonstrating resilience in delivering HIV treatment, the report noted.
Innovations are gaining momentum too. New prevention technologies—including semi‑annual injections—hold promise of stopping tens of thousands of new infections in high‑burden settings.
Byanyima urged governments to show “political courage… invest in communities, in prevention, in innovation, and in protecting human rights as the path to end AIDS.”
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