HIV Prevention Funding Faces Worst Decline in Decades

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has raised concerns over what it describes as the most significant setback to global HIV prevention efforts in decades, citing a dramatic decline in funding for condoms in several countries.

Speaking in New York on the current state of the global HIV response, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said HIV testing rates have dropped considerably in high-burden regions.

“HIV testing has fallen 22 per cent in high-burden settings, meaning that people don’t know their status and the virus continues to spread,” she said.

Byanyima also noted that “funding for condoms had been cut 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.”

Highlighting the broader funding crisis, she said, “According to the OECD, development finance fell 23 per cent in 2025, the sharpest drop on record.”

She stressed that low-income countries with high HIV burdens have been among the hardest hit by the funding reductions.

“Our newest UNAIDS data, released last week, showed fragility,” she said.

Also addressing the issue, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed cautioned that gains made in the fight against HIV are under threat as financial constraints and declining support slow progress.

Despite the challenges, Mohammed acknowledged the achievements made through decades of international collaboration.

“In the 45 years since the first case of AIDS was reported, the world has demonstrated uncommon resolve and solidarity,” she said.

“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.”

However, she emphasized that progress remains fragile and uneven across many regions.

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According to UN figures, by the end of 2024, about 9.2 million people were still without access to HIV treatment. During the same period, 1.3 million people contracted HIV, while 630,000 died from AIDS-related illnesses.

“Funding cuts are directly affecting prevention efforts, and the community systems that are so essential to the response,” Mohammed said.

She called for urgent action in five key areas: expanding access to HIV prevention and treatment services, strengthening community leadership, safeguarding human rights, increasing financial support, and revitalizing global cooperation.

“Human rights and equality must continue to guide our response,” she said, warning that stigma, discrimination and shrinking civic space continue to place lives at risk.

The speakers urged governments worldwide to renew their commitment to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and to adopt a new Political Declaration that will shape the global HIV response over the next five years.