The Worst Crisis in Global HIV/AIDS Funding in Two Decades
What Happened
$2.5 billion stripped overnight
In 2025, the U.S. government gutted PEPFAR — the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — the largest global health program in history. Created by President George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR had saved an estimated 25 million lives and was the single most successful American foreign aid initiative ever. Then $2.5 billion was stripped from HIV programs virtually overnight.
The Human Cost
The safety net is gone
An estimated 93,000+ adults and 9,000+ children have died from service disruptions since January 2025. UNAIDS projects up to 6 million additional infections and 4 million additional deaths by 2029 if funding is not restored. The Global Fund's 8th Replenishment fell $6.66 billion short of its $18 billion target. The UK cut aid by 40%. The Netherlands cut assistance by 70%.
93K+
adults dead
9,000+
children dead
$6.66B
Global Fund shortfall
What This Means for Children
Clinics closing. Drugs running out.
Every week, nearly 10,000 young people become newly infected with HIV. Without treatment, a child born with HIV has a 50% chance of dying before age two. PEPFAR was preventing mother-to-child transmission across sub-Saharan Africa. Those programs are now collapsing. Clinics are closing. Drug supplies are running out. Health workers are being laid off. Children who were days away from treatment are now dying.
Why No One Is Talking About It
A slow bureaucratic strangulation
The PEPFAR cuts happened quietly. There was no single dramatic event — just a slow bureaucratic strangulation. USAID is being restructured. Bilateral compacts are replacing NGO partnerships. NIH terminated 191 HIV grants worth over $200 million. The world's attention moved to other crises. The children didn't.
This is why Vivant exists.
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