Latest report of the Joint United Nations Programme on
HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) show that one-in-four people living with
HIV worldwide who are not receiving the lifesaving
antiretroviral treatment, are in Asia Pacific region. This
report “United to end AIDS” was released on 27th July 2026
at the world’s largest AIDS conference, the 26th
International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026) in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS
said: “Brazil has shown the world that universal access to
HIV treatment is not a dream. It is a political choice. As
we launch the 2026 Global AIDS Update, the message is clear:
We have the science to end AIDS. Now we need the political
courage to do it.”
Funding cuts put uneven HIV
progress in Asia and the Pacific at risk
Asia Pacific
region has made progress too, but it is uneven.
“The
region has shown that remarkable progress is possible,” said
Eamonn Murphy, UNAIDS Regional Director for Asia and the
Pacific and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “Protecting
those gains will require sustained investment in prevention
and community-led services, equitable access to innovation
and continued international solidarity as countries build
more sustainable HIV responses.”
Agrees Winnie
Byanyima: “Community-led organisations are not an optional
addition to health systems. They are essential
infrastructure. Investing in them makes services more
effective, more resilient, more cost-effective.”
Micah
Grzywnowicz, IPPF European Regional Director made an
important statement: “It is not only about the
funding crisis. It is about political crisis, governance
crisis and leadership crisis. Who makes decisions
and for whom? And why? And who is gaining what from those
decisions?”
Asia Pacific: 280,000 new HIV infections
in 2025
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
An estimated 280,000 people were diagnosed
with HIV in Asia Pacific region in 2025.
The UNAIDS
report warns that reductions in international financing and
cuts to HIV prevention and community-led services could lead
to a resurgence of the epidemic.
Globally, new HIV
infections and AIDS-related deaths are at their lowest
levels in more than 30 years. However, 1.2 million people
were diagnosed with HIV and 570,000 people died of
AIDS-related illnesses in 2025. New HIV infections rose in
three regions and 21 countries.
Asia and the Pacific
has made significant progress, but the regional picture
remains deeply uneven. Between 2010 and 2025, new HIV
infections declined by 21%. Even so, an estimated 280,000
people acquired HIV in the region in 2025, and epidemics
continued to grow in several countries, including Fiji,
Pakistan and the Philippines.
Are we reaching those
most-at-risk?
Key populations and their sexual
partners accounted for the large majority of new HIV
infections in the region. Yet gay men and other men who have
sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who
inject drugs, and people in prisons and other closed
settings continue to face some of the greatest barriers to
accessing appropriate HIV prevention, testing and treatment
services.
HIV testing and treatment gaps also remain
substantial. Of the nearly 9 million people living with HIV
globally who were not receiving treatment in 2025, around
one quarter lived in Asia and the Pacific. Greater efforts
are needed to expand differentiated, voluntary and
confidential HIV testing and ensure that everyone diagnosed
with HIV can access treatment and achieve viral
suppression.
Funding shock threatens HIV
gains
The global HIV response experienced dramatic
financial upheaval in 2025. Overseas development assistance
fell by 23% – the sharpest decline on record – with global
health and HIV programmes hit particularly
hard.
International financing for HIV declined by more
than US$1.5 billion, from US$8.8 billion in 2024 to US$7.3
billion in 2025 – an 18% reduction and the lowest level in
nearly two decades.
This financing shock has serious
implications for Asia and the Pacific. In many countries,
prevention programmes and community-led organisations remain
heavily dependent on international support, leaving
essential services particularly vulnerable to sudden funding
reductions.
Globally, a 2026 study across 47 countries
found steep reductions in community-led services, including
cuts of 50% to community-led support for HIV prevention
medicines and care, 85% to services for gay men and other
men who have sex with men, 82% to services for sex workers
and 72% to services for survivors of gender-based
violence.
These cuts risk deepening existing
inequalities across Asia and the Pacific, particularly for
key populations, young people and people living in remote,
fragile or humanitarian settings. They could also undermine
the community organisations that connect people with health
systems and often reach people who cannot safely or easily
access conventional services.
At the same time,
countries across the region are demonstrating what can be
achieved when political commitment, sustainable investment
and community leadership come together.
Twelve
countries in Asia and the Pacific have reported increases in
their domestic public budgets for HIV since 2025. Cambodia
was among 11 countries globally to achieve the 95–95–95
treatment targets in 2025, while Thailand’s sustained
investment in its national HIV response demonstrates what
determined political leadership and strong domestic
commitment can deliver.
95-95-95 targets mean that 95%
of all people living with HIV should know their status, 95%
of those with diagnosed HIV infection should be accessing
lifesaving antiretroviral therapy, and those accessing the
therapy should be virally suppressed. If viral load of
people with HIV is undetectable, then undetectable equals
untransmittable or U=U. WHO says there is zero risk of any
further HIV transmission for those who remain virally
suppressed as well as such persons live healthy normal
lives.
Only 48% of people living with HIV in Eastern
Europe and Central Asia had a suppressed viral load in 2025
– the lowest regional level. Stigma, criminalisation, war
and displacement deepen barriers. UNAIDS’ United to end AIDS
report calls for action: remove barriers, protect access to
care and make viral suppression possible for
everyone.
A critical juncture for Asia Pacific
region: Make the right choice!
Across the region,
countries are also expanding HIV self-testing, community-led
monitoring, differentiated service delivery and access to
oral and long-acting HIV prevention medicines. These
advances show that the region already has much of the
knowledge and experience needed to accelerate progress.
However, innovation must be affordable, accessible and
equitable and brought to scale.
UNAIDS is calling for
5 urgent actions to:
1: protect HIV prevention,
treatment and community-led services from further
cuts;
2: increase sustainable domestic financing while
maintaining international solidarity;
3: rapidly
expand equitable access to oral and long-acting HIV
prevention medicines, HIV self-testing and other
innovations;
4: remove stigma, discrimination and
punitive laws that prevent people from accessing services;
and
5: integrate HIV services with primary health care
and other health programmes without weakening specialised
and community-led services.
“Progress is won. It is
never given”
Despite growing challenges, 149 United
Nations Member States adopted a new Political Declaration on
HIV and AIDS in June 2026, providing a renewed path towards
ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Winnie
Byanyima who leads UNAIDS reminded AIDS 2026 delegates: “We
have gained something important. 149 Member States adopted a
new Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS. That did not
happen by accident. It happened because feminist movements,
women living with HIV, young women, LGBTQI+ communities and
other key populations organised, advocated and refused to
give up. Progress is won. It is never
given.”
Commitments enshrined in the Political
Declaration include ensuring that 40 million people are
receiving life-saving HIV treatment and that 20 million
people have access to antiretroviral-based HIV prevention.
The declaration also includes targets to reduce stigma and
discrimination, gender inequality and violence, and punitive
legal and policy environments that limit access to HIV
services.
If fully implemented, the commitments could
avert an additional 3.2 million new HIV infections and 1.3
million AIDS-related deaths by 2030.
Shobha Shukla
– CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Shobha Shukla is a
feminist, health and development justice advocate, and an
award-winning founding Managing Editor and Executive
Director of CNS (Citizen News Service). She serves as
Chairperson of Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA), Host and
Coordinator of SHE & Rights (Sexual Health with Equity
& Rights), President of Asia Pacific Media Alliance for
Health, Gender and Development Justice (APCAT Media), and
founder leader of DJOP (Development Justice for Older
Persons) initiative. She was also the Lead Discussant for
SDG-3 at United Nations inter-governmental High Level
Political Forum 2025. GAMA , led by her, received the AMR
One Health Emerging Leaders and Outstanding Talents Award at
UN High Level Ministerial Conference on AMR 2024. Follow her
on X @shobha1shukla or read her writings here www.bit.ly/ShobhaShukla)
