UNAIDS chief says sudden U.S. aid withdrawal risking millions of lives, could see AIDS pandemic resurge
Geneva — The sudden halt to U.S. foreign aid funding has been devastating, the UNAIDS chief said Monday, warning that without more funding, millions more will die and the global AIDS pandemic will resurge.
The United States has historically been the world's largest donor of humanitarian assistance, but President Trump has slashed international aid since returning to the White House two months ago.
"It is reasonable for the United States to want to reduce its funding over time, but the sudden withdrawal of lifesaving support is having a devastating impact," UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told reporters in Geneva. "We urge for a reconsideration and an urgent restoration of services — lifesaving services."
She warned that without more funding there will be an additional 6.3 million AIDS-related deaths in the next four years.
At the last count, in 2023, some 600,000 AIDS-related deaths were registered globally, she pointed out, "so you're talking of a 10-fold increase."
At the same time, Byanyima said her agency expected to see an additional 8.7 million new infections.
"You're talking of losing the gains that we have made over the last 25 years," she warned. "It is very serious."
Looking further ahead than the next four years, if aid funding is not restored, "in the longer term, we see the AIDS pandemic resurging, and resurging globally," Byanyima said.
"Not just in the countries where now it has become concentrated, in low-income countries of Africa, but also growing amongst what we call key populations in Eastern Europe, in Latin America," she said. "We will see a ... real surge in this disease. We'll see it come back, and we'll see people die the way we saw them in the '90s and in the 2000s."
As CBS News reported, contractors with the U.S. government's Bureau for Global Health — the USAID department responsible for projects covering HIV/AIDS treatment, maternal and child health, malaria, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases — were among those who received termination notices in January after Mr. Trump ordered a pause in all foreign aid funding pending a review.
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR — which was launched under then-President George W. Bush in 2003 — was among the U.S. government programs brought to a halt by the Trump administration earlier this year, potentially interrupting the provision of anti-viral medications for millions of HIV and AIDS patients around the world.
According to the State department, PEPFAR had saved the lives of 26 million people since it began.
While funding could be turned back on pending the outcome of the 90-day foreign aid review ordered by the White House, advocates have voiced concern that future congressional support for PEPFAR could be sapped following a revelation in early January that some of the groups that had been receiving aid were performing abortions, which is a violation of U.S. law.
One source told CBS News in late January that 20.6 million people around the world were on lifesaving medication through PEPFAR.
The source said the freeze in U.S. aid funding could lead to "hundreds of thousands of deaths, particularly for women and children, depending on the length of the freeze."
