KAMPALA, November 26, 2025 — The global response to HIV has suffered its most significant setback in decades, warns the latest UNAIDS report released on Tuesday ahead of World AIDS Day 2025. Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response details the far-reaching consequences of reductions in international funding and a lack of global solidarity, which have sent shockwaves through low- and middle-income countries heavily affected by HIV.
Abrupt cuts to international HIV assistance in 2025 have deepened existing funding shortfalls. The OECD estimates that external health assistance is projected to fall by 30–40 percent in 2025 compared with 2023, causing immediate—and in many cases severe—disruption to health services in low- and middle-income countries.
“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 for HIV 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.”
A global system in shock
Prevention services—already under strain before the crisis—have been hit hardest. Major reductions in access to medicines to prevent HIV [pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP], along with sharp declines in voluntary medical male circumcision, have created a widening protection gap for millions.
The dismantling of HIV prevention programmes designed with and for young women has further deprived adolescent girls and young women of HIV prevention, mental health, and gender-based violence services in many countries. This compounds their vulnerability—already in 2024 there were 570 new HIV infections every day among young women and girls aged 15–24.
Community-led organisations—the backbone of the HIV response and vital for reaching people most vulnerable to HIV—report widespread closures, with more than 60 percent of women-led organisations suspending essential programmes. Services for key populations, including men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and transgender people, have also been severely affected.
A failure to reach the 2030 global HIV targets set out in the next Global AIDS Strategy could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
Mounting human rights concerns
The funding crisis has unfolded against a deteriorating global human rights environment, with particularly severe consequences for marginalised populations. In 2025, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression rose for the first time since UNAIDS began monitoring punitive laws in 2008. Restrictions on civil society—particularly organisations working with key populations globally and with young women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa—are further disrupting essential access to HIV services.
Resilience and innovation offer hope
Despite these challenges, several countries have taken urgent action to close funding gaps. As a result, many are demonstrating resilience in maintaining HIV treatment delivery. Some countries have even reported steady or increased numbers of new initiations on antiretroviral therapy due to rapid measures to safeguard services.
Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, and Tanzania have all committed to increasing domestic investments in HIV services. UNAIDS is working with more than 30 countries to accelerate national sustainability plans.
Innovation is also gaining momentum. New HIV prevention technologies—including twice-yearly injections—have the potential to prevent tens of thousands of infections in high-burden settings. Partnerships announced in 2025 by the Gates Foundation, Unitaid, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief have launched initiatives to expand access to affordable generic formulations of life-saving medicines, for as little as USD 40 per person per year in some cases.
“We know what works—we have the science, the tools, and the proven strategies,” said Ms Byanyima. “What we need now is political courage. Investing in communities, in prevention, in innovation, and in protecting human rights is the path to ending AIDS.”
Developments in the latter half of 2025 provide some hope for sustaining critical international financing. The United States has released its new America First Global Health Strategy and is establishing bilateral agreements with around 70 countries to continue funding during a phased transition to self-reliant national HIV responses over the next two to five years. The Global Fund’s recent Eighth Replenishment Conference also generated pledges totalling USD 11.34 billion, with more partners expected to contribute. This represents an extraordinary achievement.
A call to action
Today, 40.8 million people are living with HIV worldwide, 1.3 million new infections occurred in 2024, and 9.2 million people still do not have access to treatment.
This World AIDS Day, UNAIDS is calling on global leaders to:
Reaffirm global solidarity, multilateralism, and the collective commitment to fight and end AIDS together.
This is the foundation of our progress to date. The health and debt commitments in the Leaders’ Declaration at the G20 Summit, and the Global Fund replenishment last weekend, are reinforcing signs of hope.
Maintain funding for the response
- International assistance must be sustained for countries most in need to ensure a gradual, secure, and sustainable transition to domestic financing.
- Domestic financing cannot grow fast enough to fill the gap; continued global support is critical.
- Urgent and meaningful debt restructuring, as outlined in the G20 Leaders’ Declaration, is essential to release resources currently tied up in debt repayments.
- Invest in innovation, including affordable long-acting prevention and treatment options.
- Expand and accelerate the roll-out of lenacapavir to reach 20 million people swiftly.
- License additional companies to scale up production and further reduce costs.
Uphold human rights. Empower communities.
- UNAIDS calls on all partners to defend the right to health as a fundamental human right. This includes standing firm for bodily autonomy and sexual and reproductive health and rights, ensuring every person can make decisions about their own body and health.
- Community-led action must be strengthened. Communities are at the heart of every successful response—their voices, leadership, and lived experience drive progress and accountability.
After decades of struggle, the global HIV response was within reach of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The world has come too far—and achieved too much—to allow progress to unravel at this moment of historic opportunity.
“This is our moment to choose,” Byanyima urged. “We can allow these shocks to undo decades of hard-won gains, or we can unite behind the shared vision of ending AIDS. Millions of lives depend on the choices we make today.”
https://thecooperator.news/investment-of-over-us-500mln-cuts-hiv-aids-infections-in-uganda/
Buy your copy of theCooperator magazine from one of our countrywide vending points or an e-copy on emag.thecooperator.news
