Funding cuts raise HIV concerns in Latin America, Caribbean

A spe­cial re­port pre­sent­ed by UN­AIDS on the oc­ca­sion of the 26th In­ter­na­tion­al AIDS Con­fer­ence, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 27 to 31 Ju­ly, re­veals that re­duc­tions in in­ter­na­tion­al fund­ing and cuts to HIV pre­ven­tion ser­vices and com­mu­ni­ty-led ser­vices could cause a resur­gence of the epi­dem­ic.

In Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, the epi­dem­ic presents con­trast­ing re­al­i­ties. The num­ber of peo­ple who ac­quired HIV fell by 30% and AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths de­clined by 65% be­tween 2010 and 2025 in the Caribbean. Sev­en coun­tries record­ed re­duc­tions in new HIV in­fec­tions. By con­trast, in Latin Amer­i­ca, new HIV in­fec­tions rose by 25% dur­ing the same pe­ri­od.

"Giv­en the cur­rent fund­ing re­al­i­ties, Gov­ern­ments must move with alacrity to trans­late po­lit­i­cal com­mit­ments to in­crease do­mes­tic fund­ing for HIV pre­ven­tion pro­grammes and com­mu­ni­ty-led ini­tia­tives that can help in re­duc­ing the num­ber of new in­fec­tions. The progress in re­duc­ing AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths and elim­i­nat­ing moth­er-to-child trans­mis­sion of HIV, in sev­er­al coun­tries, show us what is pos­si­ble in the Caribbean when po­lit­i­cal com­mit­ment turns in­to ac­tion," said Luisa Ca­bal, UN­AIDS Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.

In the Caribbean, new HIV in­fec­tions de­clined by 31% among men and 28% among women since 2010- in­clud­ing a 38% and 39% de­cline re­spec­tive­ly among young peo­ple aged 15–24- but the pace re­mains too slow to meet re­gion­al tar­gets. In Latin Amer­i­ca, three out of every four new HIV in­fec­tions oc­cur among men. Among young peo­ple the pic­ture is di­vid­ed: new HIV in­fec­tions fell by 12% among young women but rose by 16% among young men. AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths show a gen­der gap as well, with a 46% re­duc­tion among men com­pared to 23% among women be­tween 2010 and 2025. Whether or not a gen­der gap ex­ists, the trend is a clear sig­nal of the need to ac­cel­er­ate com­bi­na­tion HIV pre­ven­tion ef­forts, ex­pand ac­cess to op­tions such as PrEP, strength­en time­ly di­ag­no­sis, im­prove link­age to care, and en­sure sus­tained ac­cess to an­ti­retro­vi­ral treat­ment for men, women, and young peo­ple across the re­gion.

"De­spite the in­no­va­tions an­nounced as es­sen­tial pre­ven­tion tools to ac­cel­er­ate the re­sponse, most coun­tries in the re­gion have been ex­clud­ed from the vol­un­tary li­cences that would en­able greater ac­cess for the peo­ple who need them. This is sim­ply an in­jus­tice, and it is un­ac­cept­able," Ca­bal stat­ed.

In­ter­na­tion­al fund­ing for HIV fell by more than US$1.5 bil­lion, from US$8.8 bil­lion in 2024 to US$7.3 bil­lion in 2025, an 18% re­duc­tion and the low­est lev­el in near­ly two decades, fol­low­ing a 23% drop in of­fi­cial de­vel­op­ment as­sis­tance glob­al­ly. In Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, where sev­er­al coun­tries are in tran­si­tion and will stop re­ceiv­ing sup­port from ex­ter­nal donors, it is es­sen­tial to en­sure that this tran­si­tion is ef­fec­tive and puts peo­ple at the cen­tre.

"With the dis­rup­tions to the glob­al health ar­chi­tec­ture, it is im­por­tant to fo­cus the HIV re­sponse on five key ac­tions to trans­late po­lit­i­cal com­mit­ment in­to con­crete mea­sures: do­mes­tic fund­ing to sus­tain the re­sponse, eq­ui­table ac­cess to pre­ven­tion in­no­va­tions, sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ty lead­er­ship, clos­ing treat­ment gaps, in­clud­ing ad­dress­ing the high rates of ad­vanced HIV, and com­bat­ing HIV-re­lat­ed stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion," Ca­bal said.

In June 2026, the Caribbean was among the 149 Unit­ed Na­tions Mem­ber States in the Gen­er­al As­sem­bly that com­mit­ted to the roadmap to 2030: the Glob­al AIDS Strat­e­gy 2026-2031 and re­sound­ing­ly adopt­ed a Po­lit­i­cal De­c­la­ra­tion on HIV and AIDS.

The Po­lit­i­cal De­c­la­ra­tion in­cludes tar­gets such as reach­ing 40 mil­lion peo­ple on treat­ment and 20 mil­lion peo­ple with ac­cess to an­ti­retro­vi­ral-based pre­ven­tion by 2030. The tar­gets al­so in­clude that few­er than 10% of peo­ple liv­ing with or at risk of HIV ex­pe­ri­ence stig­ma and dis­crim­i­na­tion, that few­er than 10% of women and girls and of peo­ple liv­ing with or at risk of HIV ex­pe­ri­ence gen­der in­equal­i­ty and vi­o­lence, and that few­er than 10% of coun­tries have puni­tive le­gal and pol­i­cy en­vi­ron­ments that de­ny or lim­it ac­cess to HIV ser­vices. If ful­ly met, the com­mit­ments would pre­vent an ad­di­tion­al 3.2 mil­lion new HIV in­fec­tions and 1.3 mil­lion AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths by 2030.

The new UN­AIDS re­port show that the re­gion's ef­forts must be re­newed to reach the am­bi­tious tar­gets of the Po­lit­i­cal De­c­la­ra­tion.