AIDS 2026: Scientists Unveil Major HIV Breakthroughs Amid Funding Crisis Threatening Global Gains Severely
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Lagos – New evidence to be presented at AIDS 2026 has revealed the devastating consequences of disruptions to the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), with thousands of HIV service sites closed, treatment support for children declining sharply, and prevention services disrupted across dozens of countries. Yet, amid the growing funding crisis, scientists also unveiled major advances in long-acting HIV prevention and treatment that could transform the global response if affordable access and sustained political commitment are secured.
Breakthrough Studies Offer New Hope
The global fight against HIV stands at one of its most defining crossroads in more than two decades, with newly released scientific evidence exposing the extensive damage caused by disruptions to the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) even as researchers unveil groundbreaking advances that could redefine HIV prevention and treatment.
Ahead of the 26th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2026), scheduled to hold in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and virtually from 26 to 31 July, scientists announced a series of landmark studies showing that while innovation in HIV science continues to accelerate, funding instability is threatening to reverse years of hard-earned progress against one of the world’s deadliest epidemics.
The studies, selected from thousands of scientific abstracts to be presented during the conference, reveal the real-world consequences of recent disruptions to PEPFAR, the remarkable effectiveness of twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for HIV prevention, encouraging progress towards the first once-weekly oral HIV treatment, and fresh evidence suggesting persistent HIV-specific immune activity within the central nervous system despite viral suppression in the blood.
Convened by the International AIDS Society (IAS), AIDS 2026 comes at a critical moment for the global HIV response. With international HIV programmes facing an unprecedented funding crisis and widespread reductions in financial support, the conference will bring together researchers, policymakers, healthcare professionals, funders, civil society organisations, media representatives and people living with HIV under the theme, “Rethink. Rebuild. Rise.”
IAS President and AIDS 2026 Co-Chair, Beatriz Grinsztejn, warned that although scientific innovation continues to deliver increasingly powerful tools against HIV, their life-saving potential will remain unrealised unless governments and development partners maintain stable financial commitments.
According to her, remarkable advances in HIV prevention and treatment cannot save lives if they fail to reach the communities that need them most, stressing that sustained financing and unwavering political commitment remain indispensable to ending the epidemic.
Among the most striking findings to be presented at the conference are two studies documenting the widespread impact of recent PEPFAR disruptions, raising fresh concerns over the resilience of HIV programmes that have long depended on one of the world’s largest international health initiatives.
Since its establishment in 2003, PEPFAR has transformed the global HIV response, saving more than 26 million lives and helping many countries make significant progress towards achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets. During the first administration of United States President Donald Trump, the programme continued recording measurable gains in expanding HIV prevention and treatment services.
However, researchers reported that significant disruptions since the beginning of the second Trump administration have produced extensive operational challenges affecting HIV programmes across multiple regions.
The first of the two studies is based on findings from the PEPFAR Pulse Study, described as the first large-scale global survey designed to document the scale and nature of disruptions affecting organisations implementing PEPFAR-supported programmes.
Researchers surveyed 166 implementing partners operating across 46 countries, producing what they described as one of the most comprehensive assessments yet of how recent policy and funding changes have affected HIV service delivery.
The findings paint a troubling picture.
More than half of all implementing partners surveyed, representing 52 per cent, reported losing at least one funding award following programme changes. In addition, 77 per cent disclosed that they had been instructed to restrict aspects of their work in order to comply with additional United States policy requirements.
The consequences were immediate and extensive.
Across participating countries, funding terminations resulted in the closure of 1,714 HIV service delivery sites, including 1,010 public health facilities, 325 access points and another 126 drop-in centres that previously served vulnerable populations requiring specialised HIV services.
Researchers found that locally based implementing organisations bore the greatest burden of the disruptions, raising concerns that years of investment in strengthening community-led HIV responses could be undermined if the trend continues.
The survey also showed that organisations serving key populations, widely recognised as among those most vulnerable to HIV infection, experienced the greatest reductions in services.
Among implementing partners providing HIV treatment, more than one in every five reported permanently discontinuing at least one clinical HIV care activity following funding disruptions.
The impact extended beyond clinical services into essential medical supplies required for effective HIV prevention and treatment.
Nearly one-quarter of implementing partners reported being unable to obtain condoms, while similar proportions experienced shortages of laboratory commodities essential for patient monitoring. Others struggled to access pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medicines and life-saving antiretroviral drugs, threatening continuity of care for vulnerable communities.
Even organisations whose funding remained intact reported substantial operational adjustments in an effort to preserve financial support.
According to the survey, 61 per cent of partners with no terminated awards censored programme language, an equal proportion suspended certain services, while 44 per cent stopped delivering services to specific population groups in order to remain eligible for continued funding.
Presenting the findings, Elise Lankiewicz of amfAR said the evidence clearly demonstrates that recent United States funding and policy changes have triggered widespread disruptions throughout the PEPFAR programme, with local organisations and populations at greatest risk of HIV infection suffering the most severe consequences.
The second study examined newly released PEPFAR programme data for the 2025 fiscal year to determine how the disruptions affected HIV treatment support for children.
To provide a clearer assessment of programme performance, researchers restricted their analysis to site-level treatment delivery and technical assistance directly supported by PEPFAR.
Their findings revealed a significant decline in paediatric HIV treatment support.
Globally, 77,163 fewer children living with HIV received PEPFAR-supported treatment during the 2025 fiscal year compared with 2024, representing a decline of 14.2 per cent.
The researchers further analysed data from 21 countries with substantial numbers of children receiving PEPFAR-supported HIV treatment and found that every country except one recorded a reduction in the number of children benefiting from site-level treatment support.
The analysis further showed that the proportional decline in treatment support among children exceeded that recorded among adults, raising fresh concerns that one of the most vulnerable groups in the global HIV response is bearing a disproportionate share of the programme disruptions.
South Africa recorded the largest absolute decline, with 30,880 fewer children receiving PEPFAR-supported treatment, representing a 45 per cent reduction compared with the previous fiscal year. Researchers also identified unusual downward shifts in Uganda, Haiti, Zambia, South Africa and Kenya that appeared to depart from historical programme trends, prompting calls for urgent investigation.
Presenting the findings, Ramona Godbole of the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, Heidelberg University Hospital and the Clinton Health Access Initiative, said the results underscore the need for immediate country-level investigations as well as the restoration of routine public reporting of age-disaggregated PEPFAR programme data.
Reacting to the two studies, IAS President-Elect and Associate Professor of Global Health at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenneth Ngure, said the evidence provides compelling confirmation that recent disruptions to PEPFAR have produced far-reaching consequences, particularly for people and communities already most vulnerable to HIV infection.
Long-Acting HIV Prevention Offers Fresh Hope Amid Funding Crisis
Despite the alarming findings on funding disruptions, scientists also announced significant advances that could reshape HIV prevention and treatment if they become widely accessible.
Among the most anticipated presentations are new data from the open-label extension phases of the PURPOSE 1 and PURPOSE 2 studies evaluating twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for HIV prevention.
Lenacapavir has already received regulatory approval for HIV prevention in several parts of the world based on earlier trial results, and global rollout has begun. The latest findings provide additional evidence supporting its long-term safety and effectiveness.
