Reversing Aids gains

US FUNDING CUT: ADDITIONAL 4.2M DEATHS ESTIMATED IN NEXT 4 YEARS

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The halt to US foreign aid is a "ticking time bomb" that could reverse decades of hard-fought gains in the fight against Aids, the United Nations warned yesterday.

Around 31.6 million people were on antiretroviral drugs in 2024 and deaths from Aids-related illnesses had more than halved since 2010 to 630,000 that year, the UNAids agency said in a new report.

But now infections were likely to shoot up as funding cuts have shuttered prevention and treatment programmes, it said.

The United States has been the world's biggest donor of humanitarian assistance but President Donald Trump's abrupt slashing of international aid in February sent the global humanitarian community scrambling to keep life-saving operations afloat.

"We are proud of the achievements, but worried about this sudden disruption reversing the gains we have made," UNAids executive director Winnie Byanyima said ahead of the report's launch in Johannesburg.