This year, the United States will not observe World AIDS Day as it has for many years.
Since 1988, December 1st has been set aside for the observance. The purpose of the day is to honour those who lost their lives to the fatal illness and to increase awareness of the efforts being made to combat it.
The virus that causes AIDS, HIV, affects approximately 39.9 million individuals worldwide, including 1.2 million Americans. One factor contributing to the virus’s ongoing spread in the US is the 13% of HIV-positive individuals who are unaware that they have the virus.
The World Health Organisation, from which the Trump administration withdrew this year, initiated the day’s observance. Nonetheless, it has spread to communities and organisations worldwide in addition to WHO.
“An awareness day is not a strategy. Under the leadership of President Trump, the State Department is working directly with foreign governments to save lives and increase their responsibility and burden sharing,” State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement. “Earlier this year, we released a global health strategy aimed at streamlining America’s foreign assistance and modernizing our approach to countering infectious diseases.”
The US will continue to fight HIV/AIDS through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, and the new global health policy, according to a senior administration official. Millions of lives have been saved by the latter, which was initiated under President George W. Bush.
Health experts are cautioning that the Trump administration’s new “America First Global Health Strategy” could worsen public health systems already suffering from billions of dollars in foreign aid cuts following the demise of the US Agency for International Development, as CNN has reported. While some argue that the new system could be beneficial, everyone agrees that it represents a radical departure from decades of US policy.
The “efforts to unravel our country’s HIV response” are concerning, according to Dr. Anna Person, chair of the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
She stated in a statement on Monday that “Erasing HIV from the federal budget will not make the deadly virus go away but will reverse the progress made toward ending the HIV epidemic,”. “Without continued research and support for HIV prevention, surveillance and services, new HIV transmissions and health care expenditures will climb, and people will die.”
Original Article – https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/01/health/world-aids-day-trump-administration
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