Nigeria’s effort to curb the spread of HIV has suffered a major setback as condom distribution in the country plunged by 55 per cent within one year, according to the latest 2025 World AIDS Day report released by UNAIDS on Tuesday.
The report, titled Overcoming Disruption, Transforming the AIDS Response, warned that the global HIV response is facing its worst disruption in decades, with Nigeria listed among countries experiencing severe declines in prevention services.
UNAIDS said the drop in condom access is part of a wider collapse in essential HIV services, driven by sudden funding cuts and growing human rights restrictions across several nations. The agency noted that prevention, testing, and community-level support have been severely weakened.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, about 450,000 women have reportedly lost access to “mother mentors”—trained community workers who support pregnant women and nursing mothers living with HIV.
Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, speaking in Geneva, said the consequences of these disruptions are devastating, stressing that “behind every statistic is a person depending on lifesaving care.”
She lamented that infants are increasingly missing early HIV screening, young women are losing access to prevention tools, and entire communities have been left without basic support.
“Millions of lives depend on the choices we make today,” Byanyima said, urging global leaders to prevent a reversal of progress made over the years.
Before this decline, adolescent girls and young women were already disproportionately affected, with 570 new infections recorded daily among females aged 15 to 24.
UNAIDS warned that the collapse of prevention programmes has now placed them at even greater risk.
The report also disclosed that over 60 per cent of women-led community organisations have been forced to halt essential services due to funding shortages.
If the disruptions persist, UNAIDS projects 3.3 million additional HIV infections between 2025 and 2030.
International health financing is also shrinking rapidly. New projections by the OECD, cited in the report, show that global funding for health could fall by up to 40 per cent next year compared to 2023—cuts expected to hit low- and middle-income countries the hardest.
UNAIDS called on world leaders to recommit to global solidarity, honour existing agreements—including those made at the G20 Summit in South Africa—restore funding, protect human rights, and invest in new tools such as affordable long-acting HIV prevention methods.
The agency warned that without urgent action, gains made over two decades of global HIV response risk being wiped out.
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