Latest news with #UNAids
Daily Maverick
10-07-2025
- Health
- Daily Maverick
UNAids HIV/Aids report calls for ‘global solidarity' in face of mass funding cuts
The UNAids Global Aids Update 2025, launched on 10 July, shows 'remarkable achievements' in the worldwide effort to combat HIV/Aids. However, because of the cut in USAid funding, there could be an additional six million HIV infections and an additional four million Aids-related deaths by 2029. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAids) launched its Global Aids Update 2025 on Thursday, 10 July, with UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima highlighting the importance of 'global solidarity' in the face of recent massive funding cuts for the international fight against the disease. The report, titled ' Aids, Crisis and the Power to Transform ', was launched at Bertha Gxowa Hospital in Germiston, Johannesburg. It looks at key figures for the HIV pandemic in 2024. 'The story up to December last year showed remarkable achievements… The story is one of the most successful public health responses in history, saving more than 26 million lives, showing what is possible when the world comes together to fight a disease,' said Byanyima. However, she noted that 'what has happened this year with the sudden withdrawal of the single biggest HIV donor, combined with other cuts of aid from other governments that were happening more gradually, is putting this progress at risk, particularly for the low-income, highly burdened countries, mostly on [the African] continent.' Byanyima was referring to the decision of US President Donald Trump's administration to withdraw aid funding for HIV programmes around the world, including support provided through the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. 'We found out of 60 countries, 25 were talking about or planning reallocations. Some have created new sources of domestic funding, like levies and so on … to fill their gap. We also see more cost-effective ways of delivering services as governments integrate HIV into the mainstream of health service delivery,' said Byanyima. From the UNAids Global Aids Update 2025 The UNAids Global Aids Update 2025 shows: A 40% drop in new HIV infections between 2010 and 2024; A 56% drop in Aids-related deaths between 2010 and 2024; and Large gaps in HIV prevention, with 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2024 (about the same number as the year before). 'We started 2025 excited about a transformative opportunity to tackle HIV with lenacapavir, a new long-acting medicine that can prevent HIV infection with twice-a-year injections. This is just one of a suite of new long-acting medicines,' said the UNAids update. 'But the sudden withdrawal of the single biggest contributor to the global HIV response disrupted treatment and prevention programmes around the world in early 2025. International assistance accounts for 80% of prevention programmes in low- and middle-income countries.' Modelling done by UNAids showed that if the funding disappeared permanently, there could be an additional six million HIV infections and an additional four million Aids-related deaths by 2029. The UNAids report also showed that for the first time since the programme began reporting on HIV/Aids data, there had been an increase in the number of countries criminalising the populations most at risk of HIV, such as LGBTQIA+ communities. Seeking solutions Other speakers at the launch of the UNAids report included Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi; Professor Helen Rees, executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI); and Reverend Mbulelo Dyasi, executive director of the South African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV & Aids. Motsoaledi said that South Africa was not just seeking to manage HIV/Aids and tuberculosis (TB) in the country, but to eliminate these diseases. 'It is the responsibility of every government to provide for its people. It's not the responsibility of other governments,' he said. 'That's where it must start, which means there must be very clear political will.' In his health budget address before Parliament on Wednesday, 9 July, Motsoaledi announced that the National Treasury had allocated an additional R753.5-million in funding to plug the gap left by the withdrawal of Pepfar. At Thursday's event, Motsoaledi said the National Department of Health would also prioritise access to lenacapavir, particularly for vulnerable populations such as adolescent girls and young women. Rees emphasised that 'with every crisis comes an opportunity'. 'What are the programmes that are going to give us the best return on investment? Certainly, continuing treatment, keeping people in care and then preventing new infections,' she said. 'The other thing… is to think differently about how we're delivering services. In many of these countries, we're talking [about] HIV, but it's about health services. We need to rethink the intensity with which we deliver services, and the inefficiencies.' Rees also highlighted the importance of research in combating the HIV/Aids pandemic, stating that the work done by researchers in South Africa had a huge impact, not just locally, but globally. 'We need to continue those partnerships because they are of global benefit,' she noted. Sustaining the response Byanyima said that while Africa, and in particular sub-Saharan Africa, was the region that depended the most on external assistance for its HIV/Aids programmes, it was also the region that had made the fastest progress against the disease and generated the best innovations. 'With this [funding] cut, taking away money suddenly… it raises a question about the quality of the relationship. You don't just walk away. You plan gradual transitions. Just the fact… one member can walk away with no notice tells you that something was wrong in the relationship,' she said. To sustain the response to HIV/Aids despite the funding cut, Byanyima said countries needed to: Maintain global solidarity, because 'as long as [HIV] festers in some parts of the world, it will come back to hit everybody else'; Reallocate funds to fill the gaps left by funding cuts, despite fiscal constraints; Find more cost-effective ways to run HIV/Aids programmes; and Push for greater affordability and accessibility of new HIV/Aids prevention tools for the African region. Byanyima said there were other ways wealthier countries could support developing regions, apart from aid funding. 'In 2023, Africa received $72 billion as aid… but Africa lost $88-billion in illegal financial flows, most of it tax-dodging by companies taking money back to Europe and America… Even more, Africa paid $101-billion towards debt repayments… That debt, the interest is so high because of external factors, not because of Africa,' said Byanyima. 'We're saying to the rich countries, do the right thing. Agree on a way to restructure debt quickly, to free resources for our countries to put into health systems… Negotiate and finish the global corporate tax convention at the [United Nations] to close these loopholes of tax dodging.' DM
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws
People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids. For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased. In the past year, Mali has made homosexuality a criminal offence, where the law previously only banned 'public indecency', and has also criminalised transgender people. Trinidad and Tobago's court of appeal has overturned a landmark 2018 ruling that decriminalised consensual same-sex relations, reinstating the colonial-era ban. In Uganda, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act has 'intensified the proscription of same-sex relations', and Ghana has moved in a similar direction with the reintroduction of legislation that would increase sentences for gay sex. The crackdown on gay rights comes as the fight against HIV/Aids has been hit by abrupt US funding cuts, which have combined with 'unprecedented' humanitarian challenges and climate crisis shocks to jeopardise hopes of ending the global epidemic this decade, UNAids said. Several groups of people, known as 'key populations', are more likely to be infected with HIV. They include sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and those in prisons and other enclosed settings. In 2025, only eight of 193 countries did not criminalise any of those groups or behaviours, or criminalise non-disclosure of HIV status, exposure or transmission, according to the report. The number of people infected by HIV or dying from Aids-related causes in 2024 was the lowest for more than 30 years, according to the UNAids annual report, at 1.3 million and 630,000 respectively. Progress was uneven – ranging from a 56% fall in infections since 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa to a 94% increase in the Middle East and North Africa. But coupled with scientific advances – such as twice-yearly drugs to prevent infection – the world had the 'means and momentum' to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030, an internationally agreed goal, it said. However, that has been 'seriously jeopardised' in the early months of this year after sweeping US aid cuts that could undo decades of progress. In January, Donald Trump cut funding that had underpinned much of the global HIV response almost overnight. The report highlights HIV-prevention services as an area of concern, with many particularly reliant on donor funding. The reported number of people receiving preventive drugs in Nigeria in November 2024 was approximately 43,000. By April 2025, that number had fallen to below 6,000. Activists say access to prevention will be a particular issue for key populations, who may not be able to access mainstream healthcare due to factors such as stigma or fear of prosecution, but relied on donor-funded community clinics that have now closed. Key populations were 'always left behind', said Dr Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society (IAS). The report is being released before an IAS conference next week in Kigali, Rwanda, where researchers will share data on the impact of cuts. Modelling by Bristol University calculated that a one-year halt in US funding for preventive drugs in key populations in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 700,000 people no longer used them, and lead to about 10,000 extra cases of HIV over the next five years. UNAids modelling suggests that without any replacement for funding from US Pepfar (president's emergency plan for Aids relief), an additional 4m deaths and 6m new infections could be expected globally by 2029. However, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids, said 25 of the 60 low- and middle-income countries included in the report had found ways to increase HIV spending from domestic resources to 2026. 'This is the future of the HIV response – nationally owned and led, sustainable, inclusive and multisectoral,' she said.
Straits Times
10-07-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
US funding cuts could reverse decades of gains in Aids fight: UN
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Infections are likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes. JOHANNESBURG - The halt to US foreign aid is a 'ticking time bomb' that could reverse decades of hard-fought gains in the fight against Aids, the United Nations warned on July 10. Around 31.6 million people were on anti-retroviral drugs in 2024 and deaths from Aids -related illnesses had more than halved since 2010 to 630,000 that year, the UNAids agency said in a new report. But now infections are likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes, it said. The United States has been the world's biggest donor of humanitarian assistance but American President Donald Trump's abrupt slashing of international aid in February sent the global humanitarian community scrambling to keep life-saving operations afloat. 'We are proud of the achievements, but worried about this sudden disruption reversing the gains we have made,' UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima told AFP ahead of the report's launch in Johannesburg, South Africa . The agency in April warned that a permanent discontinuation of Pepfar , the massive US effort to fight human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Aids , would lead to more than six million new infections and an additional 4.2 million Aids -related deaths in the next four years. This would bring the pandemic back to levels not seen since the early 2000s. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Business S'pore to launch new grant for companies, expand support for workers amid US tariff uncertainties Singapore PAP appoints new heads of backbench parliamentary committees Singapore Singaporean fugitive charged over alleged drug trafficking, faces death penalty if convicted World 'Do some homework': 6 key exchanges between US Senator Duckworth and S'pore envoy nominee Sinha Sport No pain, no gain for Singapore's water polo teams at the world championships Singapore New regional centre for sustainable aviation in Asia-Pacific launched in Singapore Multimedia 60 objects to mark SG60: Which is your favourite? Business Fresh grads should 'stay calm' in job search; uptick in hiring seen: Tan See Leng 'This is not just a funding gap - it's a ticking time bomb' whose effects are already felt worldwide, Ms Byanyima said in a press release. Over 60 per cent of all women-led HIV organisations surveyed by UNAids had lost funding or had to suspend services, the report said. In a striking example, the number of people receiving pre-exposure prophylaxis ( Prep ) drugs to prevent transmission in Nigeria fell by over 85 percent in the first few months of 2025. The 'story of how the world has come together' to fight HIV/Aids is 'one of the most important stories of progress in global health ', Ms Byanyima told AFP. 'But that great story has been disrupted massively' by Mr Trump's 'unprecedented' and 'cruel' move, she said. 'Priorities can shift, but you do not take away life-saving support from people just like that,' she said. Key medical research affected Crucial medical research on prevention and treatment have also shut down, including many in South Africa which has one of the highest HIV rates in the world and has become a leader in global research. 'Developing countries themselves contribute very much towards the research on HIV and Aids , and that research serves the whole world,' Ms Byaniyma said. In 25 out of 60 low- and middle-income countries surveyed by UNAids , governments had found ways to compensate part of the funding shortfall with domestic resources. 'We have to move towards nationally owned and financed responses,' Ms Byaniyma said, calling for debt relief and the reform of international financial institutions to 'free up the fiscal space for developing countries to pay for their own response'. Still, the global HIV response built from grassroots activism was 'resilient by its very nature', she told AFP. 'We moved from people dying every single day to now a point where it is really like a chronic illness,' she said. 'There is no question that the investment has been worth it, and continues to be worth it. It saves lives.' AFP
TimesLIVE
10-07-2025
- Health
- TimesLIVE
Launch of 2025 Global Aids update report
New HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since 2010 and 4.4-million children have been protected from acquiring HIV since 2000. More than 26-million lives have been saved. The response to HIV is one of the most successful public health interventions in history. However, this phenomenal progress risks being reversed. Sudden, drastic cuts from a number of donors have sent shock waves through global health. UNAids' new report, "AIDS, Crisis and the Power to Transform", shows the effect the cuts are having globally. UNAids estimates that if the world does not act, there could be an additional 6-million new HIV infections and 4-million Aids-related deaths by 2029. The report highlights the measures some countries are taking to fill the gaps and sustain the response into the future. However, for many that future remains uncertain. The HIV response was forged in crisis and was built to be resilient. Communities, governments and the UN are transforming to meet this moment and deliver on the promise of ending Aids as a public health threat by 2030. The speakers are: Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids and UN under-secretary-general; Aaron Motsoaledi, the minister of health; Helen Rees, executive director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI); and Mbulelo Dyasi, executive director of the South African Network of Religious Leaders Living with or Personally Affected by HIV & Aids (Sanarela).
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws
People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids. For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased. In the past year, Mali has made homosexuality a criminal offence, where the law previously only banned 'public indecency', and has also criminalised transgender people. Trinidad and Tobago's court of appeal has overturned a landmark 2018 ruling that decriminalised consensual same-sex relations, reinstating the colonial-era ban. In Uganda, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act has 'intensified the proscription of same-sex relations', and Ghana has moved in a similar direction with the reintroduction of legislation that would increase sentences for gay sex. The crackdown on gay rights comes as the fight against HIV/Aids has been hit by abrupt US funding cuts, which have combined with 'unprecedented' humanitarian challenges and climate crisis shocks to jeopardise hopes of ending the global epidemic this decade, UNAids said. Several groups of people, known as 'key populations', are more likely to be infected with HIV. They include sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and those in prisons and other enclosed settings. In 2025, only eight of 193 countries did not criminalise any of those groups or behaviours, or criminalise non-disclosure of HIV status, exposure or transmission, according to the report. The number of people infected by HIV or dying from Aids-related causes in 2024 was the lowest for more than 30 years, according to the UNAids annual report, at 1.3 million and 630,000 respectively. Progress was uneven – ranging from a 56% fall in infections since 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa to a 94% increase in the Middle East and North Africa. But coupled with scientific advances – such as twice-yearly drugs to prevent infection – the world had the 'means and momentum' to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030, an internationally agreed goal, it said. However, that has been 'seriously jeopardised' in the early months of this year after sweeping US aid cuts that could undo decades of progress. In January, Donald Trump cut funding that had underpinned much of the global HIV response almost overnight. The report highlights HIV-prevention services as an area of concern, with many particularly reliant on donor funding. The reported number of people receiving preventive drugs in Nigeria in November 2024 was approximately 43,000. By April 2025, that number had fallen to below 6,000. Activists say access to prevention will be a particular issue for key populations, who may not be able to access mainstream healthcare due to factors such as stigma or fear of prosecution, but relied on donor-funded community clinics that have now closed. Key populations were 'always left behind', said Dr Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society (IAS). The report is being released before an IAS conference next week in Kigali, Rwanda, where researchers will share data on the impact of cuts. Modelling by Bristol University calculated that a one-year halt in US funding for preventive drugs in key populations in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 700,000 people no longer used them, and lead to about 10,000 extra cases of HIV over the next five years. UNAids modelling suggests that without any replacement for funding from US Pepfar (president's emergency plan for Aids relief), an additional 4m deaths and 6m new infections could be expected globally by 2029. However, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids, said 25 of the 60 low- and middle-income countries included in the report had found ways to increase HIV spending from domestic resources to 2026. 'This is the future of the HIV response – nationally owned and led, sustainable, inclusive and multisectoral,' she said.
