Source: United Nations (video statements)
Countries must urgently step up to transform their HIV responses amid an international funding crisis that risks millions of lives, a new UN report said.
UNAIDS today launched its 2025 Global AIDS Update, AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform, which shows that a historic funding crisis is threatening to unravel decades of progress unless countries can make radical shifts to HIV programming and funding.
Angeli Achrekar, UNAIDS Assistant Secretary-General, addressed virtually the press today (10 Jul) in New York about the report and said, “The report details one of the most successful public health responses in history, saving nearly 27 million lives, and showing what’s possible when the world comes together in solidarity. Right now, we show that 31 point 6 million people living with HIV, or 77 percent of all people living with HIV globally are on life saving treatment. This is extraordinary progress, and what we saw by the end of 2024 is that the end of AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 was indeed in sight.”
The report highlights the impact that the sudden, large-scale funding cuts from international donors are having on countries most affected by HIV.
Achrekar said, “There has been a sudden, abrupt, wave of massive cuts and weakening of aid consensus from the single largest HIV donor, but also other governments all over the world since January 2025, and onwards. And what’s happening is that it’s putting the entire global HIV response in peril.”
Yet it also showcases some inspiring examples of resilience, with countries and communities stepping up in the face of adversity to protect the gains made and drive the HIV response forward.
Some 25 of the 60 low and middle-income countries included in the report have indicated increases in domestic budgets for their HIV responses in 2026.
The estimated collective rise among the 25 countries amounts to 8 percent above current levels, translating to approximately USD 180 million in additional domestic resources.
Achrekar said, “We’re seeing phenomenal new tools, a suite of long-acting HIV prevention medicines that are already coming to market with injections just twice a year, that are nearly 100 percent effective at preventing and stopping HIV transmission from occurring.”
This is promising, but not sufficient to replace the scale of international funding in countries that are heavily reliant.
Achrekar explained, “We have modeled in this report and show that if the world does not act to mitigate and really ensure that there is continuity of support and resources for HIV prevention and treatment efforts, an additional 6 million HIV infections and an additional 4 million AIDS deaths will occur by 2029. What this means is that we will return to the late 1990s and early 2000s when the epidemic would it was at its deadliest peak.”
She continued, “The number of countries criminalizing key populations had increased. Bans on same sex relations are now in 64 countries, and sex work in 168 countries. This dangerous trend limits access to HIV prevention and treatment services, and again, makes the progress of getting to end AIDS and get that response back on track even harder.”