Health Talk: Funding crisis threatens global HIV response, public health efforts
The recent red flag has been raised by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which leads and inspires the world in achieving universal access to HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) services.
Its recent report — 2025 Global AIDS Update: AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform — shows that a historic funding crisis is threatening to unravel decades of progress unless countries can make radical shifts in HIV programming and funding.
The report highlights the impact that sudden, large-scale funding cuts from international donors are having on countries most affected by HIV.
'Despite marked progress in the HIV response in 2024, the weakening aid consensus and significant and abrupt funding shortfalls in the HIV response in 2025 have triggered widespread disruption across health systems and cuts to front line health workers — halting HIV prevention programmes and jeopardising HIV treatment services,' the report said.
Also Read: India's patent policies: Lifeline for HIV/AIDS treatment worldwide
Figures shared in the report stated that at the end of 2024, US$18.7 billion was available for the AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) response in low- and middle-income countries — 17% below the US$21.9 billion needed annually by 2030 to stay on track to end AIDS as a public health threat.
The report added that in 2025, the HIV financing architecture has undergone unprecedented changes — most notably, the freeze and uncertainty surrounding the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)'s funding commitments. If PEPFAR does not return to its 2024 funding level, the current 17% funding gap could widen significantly, jeopardising progress toward the 2030 global targets.
This is not the only programme impacted.
Also Read: HIV infections fall 22%, HIV-related deaths 40% globally: Study
According to a statement issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in May, insufficient levels of predictable funding of the UN health body have hindered its ability to carry out long-term projects and support its global operations to promote health for all. Additionally, overreliance on funding from a small set of traditional donors was identified as a major organisational challenge as part of WHO's transformation initiative launched in 2017.
'The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has not updated its bi-weekly bird flu (H5N1) situation summary since 17 January – even if it finally published a limited edition of its Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR) on Thursday, 6 February. In the wake of the CDC information flow shutdown and the US withdrawal from WHO, Dr Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, spoke with Health Policy Watch about how public health communications and global health collaboration remains all the more critical,' Health Policy Watch reported on February 7.
Also Read: Empowering India's youth: Key to HIV prevention
Not to mention the grant cuts by the US government to some of its prominent universities, including Harvard and Columbia.
These are just some of the examples that highlight the crisis the world is currently facing, which is likely to impact scientific research, academic work, and several healthcare initiatives — particularly affecting low- and middle-income countries in the long run.
It's a rough patch, and the only solution that one can see is other resourceful countries stepping up to fill the funding gap.
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