The World Health Organisation has expressed concern about the implications of the immediate funding pause for HIV programmes in low- and middle-income countries.

The organisation said in a statement that funding for HIV programmes provided access to life-saving therapy to more than 30 million people worldwide.

The organisation added that globally, 39.9 million people living with HIV at the end of 2023.

“A funding halt for HIV programmes can put people living with the virus at increased risk of illness and death. It can also undermine efforts to prevent transmission in communities and countries.

“Such measures, if prolonged, could lead to increase in new infections and deaths, reversing decades of progress and potentially taking the world back to the 1980s and 1990s when millions died of HIV every year globally,” it stated.

The health organisation said that for the global community, this could result to significant setbacks to progress in partnerships and investments in scientific advances that have been the cornerstone of good public health programming.

The HIV funding covers innovative diagnostics, affordable medicines and community delivery models of care.

The global body, therefore, called on the U.S. government to enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of life-saving HIV treatment and care.

It recalled the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the flagship initiative of the global HIV response established more than 20 years ago, noting that the legacy of the relief initiative is at risk.

(NAN)