Words by GOLD newsdesk
The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm over the US government’s decision to pause funding for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries, warning that the move could jeopardise the lives of millions living with HIV.
According to WHO, more than 30 million people depend on these programmes for life-saving HIV therapy. At the end of 2023, approximately 39.9 million people were living with HIV globally, meaning that any disruption in treatment could have significant consequences.
This freeze comes after President Trump issued an Executive Order on 20 January 2025 halting new foreign aid disbursements for 90 days to review their alignment with US foreign policy. It applies to all new and existing aid programmes, except those for emergency food provisions and military aid to Israel and Egypt. Another new directive also stated that “America First” should guide all foreign policy decisions, potentially reshaping how global health initiatives, such as PEPFAR, are funded and managed.
PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, currently supports more than 20 million people living with HIV, including 566,000 children, across 50 countries. The programme has saved more than 26 million lives since its inception, according to WHO.
“A funding halt for HIV programmes can put people living with HIV at immediate increased risk of illness and death,” noted the WHO press release. “Such measures, if prolonged, could lead to rises in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally.”
In addition, WHO stressed that the sudden halt could derail years of work towards sustainable HIV care. “For the global community, this could result in significant setbacks to progress in partnerships and investments in scientific advances that have been the cornerstone of good public health programming, including innovative diagnostics, affordable medicines, and community delivery models of HIV care,” the statement said.
As a result, the international health body is calling on the US government to enable additional exemptions to ensure the continued delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment and care.
