Sydney, March 27
The significant reductions in international funding for HIV prevention and treatment programmes may result in more than 10 million infections, and about 3 million deaths by 2030, according to a study published in The Lancet HIV journal on Thursday.
The study, conducted by a team at the Burnet Institute in Australia’s Melbourne models the impact of a projected 24 per cent reduction in global HIV funding by 2026. This follows announced aid cuts of 8 per cent to 70 per cent by key donors, including the US, Britain, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. These five countries collectively fund over 90 per cent of global HIV assistance.
This could lead to an estimated “4.4 to 10.8 million additional new HIV infections and 770,000 to 2.9 million HIV-related deaths in children and adults between 2025 and 2030 if funding cuts proposed by the top five donor countries, including the US and the UK, are not mitigated,” said the researchers.
The US, the largest contributor to global HIV funding, halted all assistance on January 20, following the swearing-in of the new US President Donald Trump.
The loss of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), combined with other funding cuts, now threatens to reverse progress toward ending HIV/AIDS as a global health crisis by 2030, revealed the study.