Geneva, Nov 25, (dpa/GNA) – The cut in international AIDS funding, has had far-reaching consequences and sent shock waves through low and middle-income countries affected by the pandemic, UNAIDS, the UN’s programme to combat the disease, reported in Geneva on Tuesday.
The cuts could cause up to 3.9 million additional infections with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the UN agency said on releasing its annual report ahead World AIDS Day on December 1.
“The 2025 funding crisis has thrown the AIDS response into turmoil,” it said, but it also noted that the new report showed “evidence that resilience, investment and innovation combined with global solidarity still offer a path to end AIDS.”
Last year, around 1.3 million people were newly infected with the virus, and around 630,000 died from AIDS. At the end of 2024, there were 40.8 million people living with HIV, with more than three quarters of them having access to the relevant medication.
Infections and deaths had declined sharply since 2010, the report said.
At the start of the year, the United States, which had provided three quarters of international HIV/AIDS funding, froze all payments temporarily.
Washington has since resumed funding for HIV tests, medication and health personnel for other countries.
“The impact of a sudden acceleration of cuts to international HIV financing, coupled with a retrenchment in human rights, has been devastating,” UNAIDS head Winnie Byanyima said in the report.
UNAIDS reported a 31% fall in the number of people being treated with preventive medication in Uganda, between the end of 2024 and September. In Burundi the decline was 64%.
In Nigeria, condom distribution more than halved over the first three months of this year.
The report notes that many countries have adjusted through increased investment of their own money. It said more than two dozen countries had significantly boosted their health budgets and expenditure on AIDS programmes.
GNA