The global fight against Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is facing its gravest reversal in decades, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS has warned, as Nigeria recorded a 55% drop in condom distribution over the past year.
In its 2025 World AIDS Day report, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response, released on Tuesday, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said abrupt funding cuts and a deteriorating human rights climate are severely undermining prevention and treatment services across dozens of countries.
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the agency said HIV prevention, testing and community-led programmes have been widely disrupted, adding that 13 countries have recorded a decline in the number of people newly starting treatment.
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In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 450,000 women have lost access to “mother mentors,” trusted community workers who guide them into care.
“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we fought so hard to achieve,” Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said in Geneva. “Behind every data point in this report are people.
Babies missed for HIV screening, young women cut off from prevention support, and communities suddenly left without services and care. We cannot abandon them.”
The report highlights that even before the current crisis, adolescent girls and young women remained disproportionately affected, with 570 new HIV infections occurring daily among young women aged 15 to 24. UNAIDS warns that the dismantling of prevention programmes now places this group at even greater risk.
The strain on community-led organisations, described as the backbone of HIV outreach, is also intensifying. More than 60 per cent of women-led groups report suspending essential services due to funding shortfalls.
Modelling by UNAIDS suggests that failure to restore prevention efforts could result in 3.3 million additional HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
International assistance has already sharply declined, with OECD projections indicating that external health funding could fall by 30 to 40 per cent in 2025 compared with 2023.
“The impact has been immediate and severe, especially in low- and middle-income countries highly affected by HIV,” the report said.
UNAIDS urged world leaders to recommit to global solidarity and multilateral cooperation, including pledges made at the recent G20 Leaders’ Summit in South Africa. The agency called for renewed investment in HIV prevention, including affordable long-acting options, and for the protection of human rights as central pillars of an effective AIDS response.
“This is our moment to choose,” Byanyima said. “We can allow these shocks to undo decades of hard-won gains, or we can unite behind the shared vision of ending AIDS. Millions of lives depend on the choices we make today.”
