UNAIDS said on World AIDS Day 2025 that the global funding collapse threatens decades of progress against HIV – it says that urgent action is needed to transform HIV prevention and treatment globally.
On the eve of World AIDS Day, the UNAIDS has issued a grave warning: the global fight against HIV is in its most serious crisis in decades. Its 2025 report – titled Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response – reveals that abrupt reductions in international funding have dealt a severe blow to HIV prevention, testing and community-led services worldwide.
According to UNAIDS, external health assistance in 2025 is projected to fall by 30–40 per cent compared with 2023. This drop has immediate consequences: clinics closing, community organisations suspending services, and lifesaving prevention tools – including medicines and condoms – becoming scarce.
UNAIDS warns that if funding and services are not urgently restored, the world may see an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
As of 2025, around 40.8 million people globally are living with HIV, while 1.3 million new infections were recorded in 2024, and 9.2 million remain without access to treatment.
Prevention Hardest Hit, Vulnerable Populations Suffer
Prevention services – especially those reaching marginalised and high-risk groups – have borne the brunt of funding cuts. UNAIDS notes steep declines in pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) availability, significant drops in voluntary medical male circumcision, and suspension of programmes designed for adolescent girls, young women, sex workers, people who inject drugs, and LGBTQ+ individuals.
In parts of sub-Saharan Africa, HIV prevention initiatives tailored to young women have been dismantled, depriving them not only of HIV protection but also related services such as mental health support and gender-based violence counselling.
Community-led organisations – long considered the backbone of the global HIV response – are also collapsing under the strain: more than 60 per cent of women-led organisations report suspending essential services.
The report underscores that these numbers not only represent statistics – they reflect millions of lives at stake: babies missing early HIV screening, young women deprived of prevention support, and entire communities cut off from care and support.
Glimmer of Hope: Innovation, Domestic Action, Global Solidarity
Despite the grim landscape, UNAIDS argues that hope remains. Some countries, including Nigeria, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa and Tanzania, have pledged to increase domestic investments in HIV services, stepping up national responsibility.
Moreover, new innovations – particularly long-acting HIV prevention medicines such as twice-yearly injections – hold the potential to transform prevention efforts and avert new infections, if access and pricing issues can be resolved.
Further, recent pledges from multilateral funding platforms – notably the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – and renewed donor commitment signal that global solidarity may yet rescue the response.
A Call to Action on World AIDS Day
Marking World AIDS Day 2025, UNAIDS is urging global leaders, governments and donor nations to recommit to the shared vision of ending AIDS as a public-health threat by 2030. The agency emphasises that political will, human-rights centred policies, community-led responses, and sustained funding – domestic and international – are now more critical than ever.
“This is our moment to choose,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima – and millions of lives depend on the choice the world makes now.
