Fewer children got US-backed HIV treatment after aid cuts, study finds

Around 77,000 fewer children worldwide received HIV treatment supported by the U.S. in the year to October 2025 than in the previous fiscal year, according to a study that found declines after the Trump administration's cuts and changes to foreign aid. The study refers only to U.S.-supported care, and some of the children may have received treatment through national governments or other donors. The analysis of U.S. government data found U.S.-supported pediatric HIV treatment fell by around 14% year-on-year.

Kenneth Ngure, professor of global health at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology and a co-author of the study, stated, "These are signals, not a verdict. But children cannot wait." The study was presented at the AIDS 2026 conference in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday. The U.S. State Department said it had not reviewed the study in detail but its methodology was flawed, stating the decline was a sign of the program's success as fewer children were getting infected with HIV, and numbers on treatment had been going down for four years. However, the authors said declines last year were steeper than this historical trend in five countries: Uganda, Haiti, Zambia, South Africa, and Kenya. Ngure and team analyzed data from the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and found a decline in U.S.-supported pediatric treatment in 20 of 21 countries analyzed.