UNAIDS warns that due to reduced funding and its impact on prevention programmes, there could be 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030
The global response to AIDS is currently suffering “its most significant setback in decades” due to cuts in international funding in the countries most affected by the disease, UNAIDS indicates in a report published this Tuesday, November 25.
“Reductions in international funding and the lack of global solidarity (…) sent shock waves through low- and middle-income countries severely affected by HIV,” the organization explains.
Its executive director, Winnie Byanyima, points out that “the sudden cessation of US financing in February”, after Donald Trump’s return to the White House, had an impact.
“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we have fought so hard for,” Byanyima said in a statement to reporters in Geneva.
“Behind every piece of data in this report are people: babies and children who do not access HIV testing or early diagnosis, young women isolated from prevention support, and communities who are suddenly left without services and care. “We cannot abandon them.”
The report warns that, if prevention services collapse, there is a risk of “3.3 million additional infections” between 2025 and 2030.
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Prevention programs interrupted
UNAIDS highlights in the report the interruption of HIV-related prevention, testing and community programs:
- In 13 countries, the number of people starting treatment has decreased.
- Stockouts of HIV testing kits and essential medicines have been reported in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Distribution of preventive medicines has plummeted: 31% in Uganda, 21% in Vietnam and 64% in Burundi.
- 450,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa have lost access to “mentor mothers”, trusted community workers who connect them to care services.
- Nigeria has recorded a 55% drop in condom distribution.
Before the crisis, adolescent girls and young women were already severely affected. With the dismantling of prevention programs, they become even more vulnerable. Every day there are 570 new HIV infections among young women aged 15 to 24 years.
Community organizations, which are the backbone of HIV outreach, are also under pressure. More than 60% of women-led organizations say they have had to suspend essential services.
Against this backdrop, UNAIDS calls on world leaders to reaffirm solidarity and maintain and increase funding for HIV, especially for countries most dependent on external aid.
With information from Swissinfo.ch/United Nations
*Journalism in Venezuela is carried out in a hostile environment for the press with dozens of legal instruments in place to punish the word, especially the laws “against hate”, “against fascism” and “against the blockade.” This content was written taking into consideration the threats and limits that, consequently, have been imposed on the dissemination of information from within the country.
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