Reimagining the AIDS Response to Save Lives in an Era of Disruption

Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS response, a new World AIDS Day report from UNAIDS, details how the HIV funding crisis, human rights setbacks, and constrained resources across countries threaten to reverse progress in the fight against AIDS.

A sustained HIV response over the last thirty years has brought the world closer than ever before to ending AIDS as a public health threat, the report notes. While goals set for treatment and prevention have not always been met, gains in the HIV response have been substantial.

In 2024, nearly 2 million AIDS-related deaths were prevented because over 77% of the 41 million people living with HIV globally were on treatment.

But these and other hard-won advances are now at risk because of funding cuts and service disruptions:

• UNAIDS projects 1.4 million annual new HIV infections, resulting in an additional 3.9 million people newly acquiring HIV by 2030.
• Prevention efforts in countries that primarily rely on outside funding are especially at risk—the regions of eastern and southern Africa and western and central Africa are particularly vulnerable. Prevention services disruptions could increase new infections among children, adolescent girls, young women, and survivors of gender-based violence, as well other groups.
• Disproportionately affected by HIV, key populations (such as gay and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, and sex workers and their clients) and their partners are experiencing increases in new infections at a time when programs tailored to their needs, many of which rely on outside donor funding, are shuttering.
• Growing anti-rights and anti-gender movements have the potential to harm the HIV response. For example, the number of countries that criminalize same-sex sexual activity and gender expression increased in 2025, the first time this has been documented since UNAIDS began monitoring these punitive laws in 2008.
• Community-led services, which are critical components of healthcare access in some countries often depend entirely on outside donor funding, are faltering. According to the report, over 60% of women-led HIV organizations have experienced a loss in funding or need to stop essential programs.
• Funding shortfalls will be exacerbated in 2025 as international health aid is projected to decrease 30–40% compared to two years ago and cause immediate and drastic disruptions to health services.
• Many countries this year experienced a decline in the number of people receiving the HIV prevention tool PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis).

The report shares evidence that, in the face of public health threats, countries and communities are actively working to navigate the new funding landscape and develop a sustainable response to HIV. Community-led organizations are working to ensure access to HIV services. Many countries have increased their domestic HIV budgets and made significant commitments to the response.

Affirming the importance of global solidarity, the report also offers recommendations for building on this resilience and strengthening long-term solutions to end AIDS, including utilizing innovative funding strategies and promoting people-focused services.

Read the full report here.

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