Global HIV funding suffers biggest fall in decades, dropping 18% in 2025

International funding for HIV programmes in developing countries fell by 18 percent in 2025, the biggest decline in decades, UNAIDS said on Monday.

The agency warned that the global response to the epidemic was weakening and that failure to act collectively could allow HIV to re-emerge.

UNAIDS released the figures as the 26th International AIDS Conference opened in Rio de Janeiro.

Angeli Achrekar, the agency’s deputy executive director, told AFP that the world’s response to HIV was “absolutely faltering”.

The report said funding from European countries had fallen by 58 percent since 2011.

The United States continued to provide 74 percent of funding from donor governments, despite major cuts to US foreign aid after Donald Trump returned to the White House last year.

Developing countries with high HIV rates increased their own spending, Achrekar said.

Domestic HIV funding rose four percent in 2025 and now accounts for 60 percent of the total, according to UNAIDS.

UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima told AFP last month that the increase remained far below the level needed.

The report said many low-income African countries depended on overseas development assistance for 90 percent of their HIV programmes.

New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths fell to their lowest levels in more than 30 years in 2025, although infections increased in 21 countries.

Experts said it was still too early to determine the full impact of the funding reductions.

Achrekar called for countries to build on a UN political declaration adopted in late June that set targets for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

The report said almost half of all children living with HIV were not receiving antiretroviral treatment last year.

Ahead of the Rio conference, Merck announced plans to allow some manufacturers in Africa and India to produce cheaper generic versions of its once-monthly antiretroviral pill alimatravir, which has not yet been approved.

Doctors Without Borders also called on Gilead to make its twice-yearly preventative drug lenacapavir available in more countries where it is needed.