A Global HIV Setback: Reflections on the Crisis Reported by ICN
Insights from Jo Siedlecka’s ICN report on the most severe global HIV rollback in decades
In a recent article for Independent Catholic News, journalist Jo Siedlecka reported an alarming development in the worldwide response to HIV. Drawing on new data released for World AIDS Day 2025 by UNAIDS, she highlights what is now described as the most serious setback in decades. Her report, Global HIV Response Facing Worst Setback in Decades, paints a stark picture of how funding cuts, rising discrimination, and the erosion of human rights protections are converging to undermine hard-won progress.
According to the UNAIDS report Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response, international financial support is collapsing at unprecedented speed. OECD projections show that external health funding may fall by 30–40 per cent between 2023 and 2025. For many countries most affected by HIV, this loss of funding is not a distant forecast but an immediate and devastating reality.
A Rapid Unravelling of Services
As Siedlecka summarises, the impact of these cuts can already be seen across dozens of nations:
The number of people starting HIV treatment has fallen across 13 countries.
Stock-outs of test kits and essential medicines have been reported in Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Prevention programmes are collapsing, with sharp declines in the distribution of key medicines: 31% in Uganda, 21% in Vietnam, and 64% in Burundi.
450,000 women in sub-Saharan Africa have lost access to trusted “mother mentors”.
Nigeria has seen a 55% drop in condom distribution.
Even before this crisis, adolescent girls and young women were among the world’s most vulnerable groups, with 570 new infections every day. The dismantling of prevention services now leaves them at even greater risk.
UNAIDS modelling warns that unless prevention work is restored, 3.3 million additional infections could occur between 2025 and 2030.
A Shrinking Space for Human Rights
Siedlecka also draws attention to another severe challenge: a global rise in punitive laws and restrictions on civil society.
For the first time since tracking began, more countries criminalised same-sex relationships and gender expression in 2025. UNAIDS notes:
168 countries criminalise aspects of sex work
152 criminalise small-scale drug possession
64 criminalise same-sex relations
14 criminalise transgender people
Restrictions on community organisations—often the only groups able to reach those most at risk—make it even harder for people to access care.
Real-World Consequences
In the ICN report, Siedlecka includes harrowing testimony from Dr Byrone Chingombe of CeSHHAR in Zimbabwe. He explains that when funding abruptly stopped early in 2025, service providers were suddenly laid off:
“Medicines were on the shelves, but the people who deliver them were gone. That disrupted adherence, and more importantly, it disrupted trust.”
HIV testing rates in some regions have fallen by more than 50%, not because the need has decreased, but because the pathways to help have disappeared.
And yet, even amid the crisis, Dr Chingombe sees glimmers of hope—especially in the resilience of communities and in new long-acting prevention options such as injectable lenacapavir, now fast-tracked for approval.
Catholic Voices Respond
Siedlecka reminds readers that the Catholic Church remains the largest provider of HIV-related care worldwide. In her report, she gathers responses from several Catholic organisations, including CAFOD and CAPS, who describe the profound moral and practical implications of the crisis.
Christine Allen, CAFOD’s Director and CEO, highlights how funding cuts force impossible choices on poorer nations:
“These cuts make our world less safe and more vulnerable to diseases… urgent action is needed to tackle unsustainable debts and enable countries to invest in their people and their future.”
From CAPS, Lazarus Mungure—recently returned from Zimbabwe—speaks plainly about the human cost:
“We know of people whose treatment has been interrupted or stopped altogether. Life-saving medicines should always be universally accessible, not only reserved for those who are rich.”
CAPS Director Dr Vincent Manning echoes this warning, noting how stigma, criminalisation, and poverty intersect:
“We make a big mistake if we think that HIV is no longer a problem… These funding cuts should remind us of how easily we become complacent in the face of injustice and the suffering of others.”
A Moment of Moral Choice
Siedlecka concludes the ICN report with the words of Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS:
“We can allow these shocks to undo decades of hard-won gains, or we can unite behind the shared vision of ending AIDS.”
It is a call not only to governments, but to faith communities, charities, and all who care about justice.
What This Means for Us
For communities of faith, particularly those supporting people living with HIV, this crisis is not abstract. It affects real people—families, young women, migrants, those already pushed to the margins of society.
It challenges us to renew our commitment to accompaniment, advocacy, and solidarity.
As people of faith, we recognise the dignity of every person and the moral imperative to protect life, health, and human rights. The crisis described in ICN by Jo Siedlecka invites us to stay awake to suffering, to resist complacency, and to continue working for a world where treatment, justice, and compassion are available to all.
