A spe­cial re­port pre­sent­ed by UN­AIDS on the oc­ca­sion of the 26th In­ter­na­tion­al AIDS Con­fer­ence, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 27 to 31 Ju­ly, re­veals that re­duc­tions in in­ter­na­tion­al fund­ing and cuts to HIV pre­ven­tion ser­vices and com­mu­ni­ty-led ser­vices could cause a resur­gence of the epi­dem­ic.

In Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, the epi­dem­ic presents con­trast­ing re­al­i­ties. The num­ber of peo­ple who ac­quired HIV fell by 30% and AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths de­clined by 65% be­tween 2010 and 2025 in the Caribbean. Sev­en coun­tries record­ed re­duc­tions in new HIV in­fec­tions. By con­trast, in Latin Amer­i­ca, new HIV in­fec­tions rose by 25% dur­ing the same pe­ri­od.

"Giv­en the cur­rent fund­ing re­al­i­ties, Gov­ern­ments must move with alacrity to trans­late po­lit­i­cal com­mit­ments to in­crease do­mes­tic fund­ing for HIV pre­ven­tion pro­grammes and com­mu­ni­ty-led ini­tia­tives that can help in re­duc­ing the num­ber of new in­fec­tions. The progress in re­duc­ing AIDS-re­lat­ed deaths and elim­i­nat­ing moth­er-to-child trans­mis­sion of HIV, in sev­er­al coun­tries, show us what is pos­si­ble in the Caribbean when po­lit­i­cal com­mit­ment turns in­to ac­tion," said Luisa Ca­bal, UN­AIDS Re­gion­al Di­rec­tor for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean.