UN chief warns AIDS progress at risk from funding cuts

UN Secretary General António Guterres has warned that decades of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS could be reversed by sharp cuts in international funding.

"AIDS-related deaths have been reduced by 70 per cent since their peak in 2004, but that progress is now under threat in the face of severe funding cuts," Guterres said in a post on X.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), cited OECD data showing that development aid had fallen by 23 per cent in 2025.

HIV programs in low-income countries with high infection rates had been particularly hard hit, she said.

In regions with a heavy HIV burden, the number of HIV tests had fallen by 22 per cent, while funding for condoms had been cut by more than 90 per cent in some areas.

Byanyima also warned of setbacks in efforts to protect groups most vulnerable to HIV infection, including women and girls, gay men, transgender people and sex workers.

Increasing criminalisation of such groups was contributing to the spread of the virus, she said.

Speaking ahead of a General Assembly meeting, Guterres said the global fight against AIDS was far from over.

At the end of 2024, 9.2 million people who needed treatment still lacked access to it, he said.

According to UN figures, about 630,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2024.

The General Assembly is holding a two-day meeting on HIV/AIDS on June 22 and 23.