A hand holds a red ribbon, the symbol of HIV/AIDS awareness. World AIDS Day, 1 December.

Facing Disruption, Responding to HIV/AIDS

World AIDS Day 2025 focuses on overcoming the many disruptions to HIV/AIDS services and treatment seen this year. 

The world has come a long way on fighting the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. According to the 2025 Global AIDS Update, at the end of 2024, approximately 1.3 million people newly acquired HIV—40 percent fewer new infections per year compared to 2010. However, progress has been stalling: the number of new infections is virtually unchanged from the previous year. And now, with major financial upheavals disrupting HIV and AIDS programs and services, decades of progress could be erased. 

Each year on December 1, the world observes World AIDS Day to commemorate the people whose lives have been affected by HIV/AIDS and advocate for increased action to end this disease. This year, the World Health Organization (WHO) is rallying around the theme “Overcoming disruption, transforming the AIDS response” to emphasize how sustained commitment is needed during this moment of disruption, but progress is still possible. 

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a viral infection that can spread from person to person through sexual intercourse, breastfeeding, or being exposed to an infected person’s blood such as through sharing needles. Once a person has HIV, they have it for life. The virus attacks the body’s immune system, which makes it difficult to fight other infections and certain cancers. The most advanced stage of HIV is called acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Without treatment, HIV/AIDS is fatal. 

Antiretroviral therapies (ARTs) have been instrumental in the HIV/AIDS response. ARTs keep the virus from replicating, suppressing a person’s viral load. If an HIV-positive person has a viral load that is undetectable, that person is able to live a healthy, normal life, and they are not able to transmit HIV to other people. ARTs can also be taken pre-emptively to protect a person who is at high risk from acquiring HIV. In this way, ARTs have saved millions of lives and helped turn a fatal disease into a preventable and manageable chronic condition. 

However, ARTs are only able to save lives if the people who need treatment know their HIV status and are able to access treatment continuously. In 2024, 23 percent of people living with HIV—almost one in every four people who have the disease—did not receive treatment. Approximately 630,000 people died of AIDS-related causes the same year. 

The vast majority of new HIV/AIDS cases, as well as deaths, occur in low- and middle-income countries where health systems are weaker and resources are more constrained. As such, many low- and middle-income countries have relied on donor countries to fund HIV services and treatment. 

The U.S. has traditionally been the largest donor, funding about 80 percent of international governmental support to HIV programs. However, in 2025, changes to U.S. foreign aid policy—compounded by decreases in developmental aid from other high-income countries—led to sudden decreases and disruptions to funding, which has greatly impacted the operation and delivery of HIV prevention, testing, and treatment programs. In response to this situation, at least 25 countries have announced increased domestic funding for HIV/AIDS services. While this is a needed step toward building more robust health systems, it will be difficult for countries to fully bridge the gap, resulting in more new cases and AIDS-related deaths and potentially erasing decades of progress. 

But despite the challenges, the current global health funding landscape also presents an opportunity to rebuild current structures into more accessible, equitable, and sustainable systems. Recent advances in long-acting injectable ARTs also show tremendous promise to prevent and treat HIV while reducing the burden on patients and health care systems. Whether the world can capitalize on the available opportunities or let them pass by will determine the future trajectory of ending HIV/AIDS. 

To learn more about the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, explore our resource pack on global infectious diseases or check out the selected resources below. 

Selected Resources

The Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University supports interdisciplinary education about world health through the production, curation, and dissemination of educational public goods. Our digital repository is a searchable library of reputable resources that support learning and teaching about interdisciplinary global health challenges. The repository includes both general resources, such as reports, articles, country profiles, and data, and teaching resources, such as teaching cases and lesson-based teaching packs. 

Share on: