Global HIV Prevention Faces Worst Setback in Decades as Funding Crisis Deepens — UNAIDS

Global efforts to prevent HIV infections are facing their most severe setback in decades, with funding cuts and declining access to prevention services threatening years of progress, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has warned.

UNAIDS Executive Director, , raised the alarm while presenting an assessment of the global HIV response in New York, warning that critical prevention programmes are being weakened at a time when innovation and expanded access to treatment are urgently needed.

Byanyima disclosed that HIV testing had declined by 22 per cent in high-burden settings, leaving more people unaware of their status and increasing the risk of continued transmission.

She also revealed that funding for condoms, one of the key tools in HIV prevention, had dropped by more than 90 per cent in some countries.

“Prevention is being dismantled at the very moment we should be scaling innovations like new long-acting medicines,” she warned.

According to her, the reduction in global development financing has worsened the situation, citing data from the (OECD) showing that development finance declined by 23 per cent in 2025 — the sharpest drop on record.

She said HIV programmes in low-income countries with high infection burdens had been particularly affected by the funding shortages.

“Our newest UNAIDS data showed fragility,” Byanyima said, stressing the need for urgent international action to prevent the reversal of decades of gains.

The UN Deputy Secretary-General, , also warned that progress in tackling HIV was slowing due to financial pressures and declining international support.

Mohammed highlighted the achievements recorded since the first AIDS case was reported 45 years ago, noting that global cooperation had significantly reduced AIDS-related deaths and expanded access to lifesaving treatment.

“That effort helped reduce AIDS-related deaths by 70 per cent since their peak in 2004 and brought lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to more than 32 million people worldwide,” she said.

However, she cautioned that the gains remain fragile, with millions of people still lacking access to essential HIV services.

UN data showed that by the end of 2024, about 9.2 million people worldwide were without HIV treatment, while 1.3 million people acquired HIV and 630,000 died from AIDS-related causes.

Mohammed said funding reductions were directly affecting prevention programmes and weakening community-based systems that remain central to the global HIV response.

She called on governments and international partners to prioritise five key areas: expanding access to prevention and treatment, strengthening community leadership, protecting human rights, increasing sustainable financing and rebuilding international cooperation.

The UN official stressed that human rights and equality must remain central to HIV interventions, warning that stigma, discrimination and restrictions on civic space continue to undermine efforts to control the epidemic.

Stakeholders at the meeting urged governments to renew commitments toward ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and adopt a new political declaration to guide global HIV responses over the next five years.

They warned that without urgent investment and renewed global solidarity, decades of progress against HIV could be threatened.