UNAIDS Head Says Funding Cuts Further Disrupt Goal To End AIDS As Public Health Threat By 2030

Reuters (6/13, Cocks) reported UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said Friday that the Trump Administration’s cuts to HIV/AIDS programs will further jeopardize the plan to end the disease as a public health threat by 2030. Byanyima told journalists in Johannesburg that 1.3 million new infections in 2023 indicated the world was already “off track.” She said, “Less funding means we will get more and more off-track,” adding, “We don’t know yet what that impact will be, but impact there will be...already you see in several countries a drop in the number of people going to clinics.” Prior to the cuts, prevention programs had reduced new infections, she said, but they were “not coming down fast enough to reach our target of 2023.” The shuttering of community prevention clinics across Africa will likely result in more infections, “though it wasn’t clear yet by how much, she said.”