US funding cuts could reverse decades of gains in AIDS fight: UN

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 Thursday.

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…