HIV Epidemic Could Resurge as Funding Falls

The world risks a resurgence of the HIV epidemic after global funding fell by 18% in 2025 to $7.3bn, the lowest level in nearly two decades, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) warned in a report released at an international conference in Brazil.

The decline was driven largely by cuts in prevention programs by the United States, which had previously accounted for 75% of international HIV funding.

Higher domestic spending in some countries partly offset the shortfall, limiting the overall decline in HIV resources to 6%. However, many developing countries were unable to compensate for the loss.

The impact was particularly severe in sub-Saharan Africa, which accounts for about half of all new infections. In Cameroon, Nigeria and Zambia, the number of people receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis fell by more than 50%.

UNAIDS said disruptions to prevention, testing and treatment threatened to reverse more than three decades of progress and had pushed the goal of ending AIDS by 2030 further off track.

(Reuters, Max)