GENEVA – More than six million people could die from HIV and AIDS in the next four years if the United States under President Donald Trump withdraws its global funding for life-saving programmes, the United Nations AIDS agency (UNAIDS) warned on February 7.
Despite a recent waiver excluding HIV/AIDS programmes from the broader US foreign aid freeze, concerns persist over the long-term impact on treatment accessibility, said UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director Christine Stegling. “There is a lot of confusion, especially at the community level, on how the waiver will be implemented. We’re seeing significant disruption in treatment services,” she told reporters in Geneva
Trump’s administration froze hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid for 90 days following his return to office on January 20. While the US State Department later granted an exemption for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)—the world’s leading HIV initiative—UNAIDS warns that funding uncertainty continues to threaten global efforts to combat the epidemic.
Ms. Stegling cautioned that without PEPFAR’s financial reauthorization between 2025 and 2029, AIDS-related deaths could surge by 400%, resulting in 6.3 million lives lost. “Any cut, any pause in funding will have devastating consequences,” she emphasized, urging UN member states to step in.
The crisis is already affecting healthcare systems worldwide. “In Ethiopia, 5,000 public health workers, whose contracts were funded by US assistance, have been terminated,” Ms. Stegling revealed. Community clinics, heavily reliant on US funding, face major disruptions, which could discourage people from seeking treatment and lead to a spike in new HIV infections.
The US is the largest donor to global HIV/AIDS initiatives, supporting UNAIDS programs in 70 countries. The Trump administration has stated it is reviewing all foreign aid programmes to ensure alignment with its “America First” policy, raising concerns about the future of global health efforts to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.