Overview
- At the July 2026 International AIDS Conference in Rio, UNAIDS reported that international HIV funding fell by more than $1.5 billion to $7.3 billion for 2025 and warned those cuts could trigger a resurgence.
- The funding shortfall has already forced some clinics to close and halted many prevention programs in parts of sub‑Saharan Africa, leaving high‑risk communities more exposed to new infections.
- WHO has merged units and reduced staffing by about 30% in affected areas while its HIV‑related budgets fell by over 40%, and UNAIDS has cut more than half of its staff with proposals to wind the agency down by 2027.
- Pharmaceutical access is a growing flashpoint: Merck has offered to allow generic production for a new drug, while aid groups press Gilead to widen access and lower prices for a long‑acting prevention medicine that costs far more in the US than production estimates.
- The United States still supplied nearly three quarters of government HIV aid last year, leaving many low‑income countries that rely up to 90% on external funds vulnerable to further donor shifts and threatening the goal to end AIDS as a public‑health threat by 2030.