Winnie Byanyima, executive director of WHO, said the sudden funding drop is hitting the HIV response “like a shock wave”. UNAIDSSaying that “the world is moving backward when we need to move forward.”
Many countries are unprepared to sustain programs already supported by international funding, Ms Byanyima told reporters at UN headquarters in New York, adding that prevention and support services were already collapsing in many countries.
Today, 9.3 million people living with HIV are still waiting to start treatment, while there were 1.3 million new infections worldwide in 2024.
‘Actual results’
Ms Byanyima warned that the funding crisis is having “real consequences” in developing countries as treatment expansion stalls and community organizations – often the backbone of the HIV response – are forced to scale back or close altogether.
In Uganda, uptake of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), which can reduce the risk of acquiring HIV through sexual transmission by 99 percent, fell 31 percent between December 2024 and September 2025.
In Burundi, offtake declined by 64 percent over the same period.
Even basic prevention tools are becoming less accessible. In Nigeria, condom distribution declined by 55 percent between December 2024 and March 2025.
shock to funding
Charities and groups working on HIV/AIDS are under strain due to funding cuts, with many reducing operations or closing down altogether.
In the eight countries where UNAIDS operates, 99.9 percent of HIV prevention services are externally funded, with only 0.1 percent funded domestically, making programs highly vulnerable to aid cuts.
“The fiscal constraints of the most burdened countries are enormous,” Ms Byanyima said.
In 2024, approximately 570 girls and young women become infected with HIV every day. Yet 60 percent of women-led HIV organizations have either lost funding or closed entirely.
The most vulnerable people caught in ‘proxy war’
“These are proxy wars for vital minerals, for energy, for influence that are being fought for the rights of the most marginalized people,” Ms Byanyima said.
In Kenya, most drop-in centers serving key populations, including LGBTQ communities, have closed. Nigeria has lost at least five similar clinics.
In Uganda, 45 percent of programs supporting key populations have partially or completely closed. In Zimbabwe, services for sex workers – including access to prevention, testing and treatment – are projected to completely collapse in 2025.
Science is offering solutions
Despite setbacks, Ms. Byanyima stressed that scientific advances still provide a path to eliminating AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
“Science is providing us with solutions that can end this epidemic by 2030; longer-acting preparations, longer-acting prevention, longer-acting treatments, drugs that we would not have thought about 10 years ago. These all exist,” he said.
But he warned that sudden funding cuts and a growing backlash against human rights are taking the world further away from that goal.
