Condom distribution in Nigeria dropped by 55% over the past year, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said on Tuesday, highlighting what it described as the worst setback in decades for the global HIV response.
Launching its 2025 World AIDS Day report, Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response, UNAIDS said HIV prevention, testing, and community-led programmes have been widely disrupted across dozens of countries. In 13 nations, the number of people newly starting treatment has fallen.
The UN agency said 450,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa have lost access to “mother mentors,” community workers who connect them to care. Abrupt funding cuts and a deteriorating human rights environment were cited as key factors undermining prevention and treatment services.
“The funding crisis has exposed the fragility of the progress we fought so hard to achieve,” UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said in Geneva. “Babies missed for HIV screening, young women cut off from prevention support, and communities suddenly left without services and care. We cannot abandon them.”
Before the current disruptions, adolescent girls and young women were already severely affected, with an estimated 570 new HIV infections daily among females aged 15 to 24, the report said.
UNAIDS warned that dismantled prevention programmes leave young women even more vulnerable, noting that over 60% of women-led organisations have had to suspend essential services. Modelling by the agency suggests that failure to restore prevention efforts could result in an additional 3.3 million new HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
International assistance has also declined sharply, with projections from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) showing that external health funding could drop 30-40% in 2025 compared with 2023, UNAIDS said.
The agency urged world leaders to maintain and increase HIV funding, invest in affordable prevention innovations, and uphold human rights, emphasizing that empowering communities remains central to an effective HIV response.
NAN