PARIS, France: Massive cuts to international aid have put the world´s response to HIV “in peril”, the UN´s top AIDS official warned on Friday, as a new report revealed the scale of disruption to HIV prevention efforts.
Last year, the new administration of US President Donald Trump --- with help from then-adviser Elon Musk -- dismantled the world´s largest aid agency, the United States Agency for International Development USAID), and slashed global funding.
Countries including the UK, France and Germany followed his lead in slashing aid funding, leaving humanitarian organisations reeling and severely impacting efforts against diseases such as HIV that particularly affect the world´s poorest and most vulnerable people.
“This is the most serious disruption in the HIV response since the world came together to fight this disease,” UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said.
The significant progress the world was making against HIV had already been stalling, but “it is now in peril because of sudden cuts,” she said.
It will take time for the full impact of these funding cuts to become clear -- but there are already signs that hard-fought gains are being reversed, Byanyima added.
Data in the new UNAIDS report showed that the number of people taking the vital HIV-prevention drug PrEP fell by 38 percent across 62 countries between 2024 and 2025. In the countries most affected by HIV -- most of which are in sub-Saharan Africa -- HIV testing rates under a major programme decreased by 22 per cent, the report said.
