Ending AIDS Is at Risk

Progress in the HIV response remains tenuous in the face of funding cuts, according to a new UNAIDS report titled United to End AIDS.

In 2025, external support for all facets of international development, including health funding, fell by 23% compared to the previous year. According to UNAIDS, these cuts have severely impacted HIV prevention, testing, attempts to dismantle barriers to services, and community-led services. Between 2024 and 2025, HIV testing programs decreased by 22% in places heavily burdened by the virus. Funding for condoms has been cut by more than 90% in some of these programs. PrEP uptake decreased by 38% between 2024 and 2025 in 62 countries. 

Though progress toward the 95-95-95 targets set by UNAIDS for testing, treatment, and viral suppression was maintained, numerous inequalities persist across populations.

• Women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, comprising 6 out of 10 new acquisitions.
• Notably, children (0-14 years) living with HIV still lag behind adults living with HIV when it comes to knowing their HIV status, receiving treatment, and achieving suppression of the virus. In 2025, just over half of children living with HIV were on antiretroviral therapy (54%).
• New acquisitions among certain at-risk populations—which include gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who are incarcerated, and people who inject drugs—remain disproportionately high when compared to the general population.

The report reaffirms that ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 remains an attainable goal. UNAIDS recommends several priorities to keep progress from flagging, including a country-owned and community-led response that taps domestic resources and pursues people-focused HIV services, diversified financing, and integration of HIV into universal health coverage, among others.

Read the full report by clicking here.

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