After massive cuts, U.S. says HIV work aboard is going well, but experts disagree

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+ Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions The Best Music of 2025 About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics After massive cuts, U.S. says HIV work abroad is going well, but experts disagree The Trump administration has released new data on the country's HIV/AIDS work abroad.

+ World After massive cuts, U.S. says HIV work abroad is going well, but experts disagree April 20, 20264:42 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition By Gabrielle Emanuel After massive cuts, U.S. says HIV work aboard is going well, but experts disagree Listen &middot; 2:04 2:04 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5790657/nx-s1-9736415" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript The Trump administration has released new data on the country's HIV/AIDS work abroad. It is claiming the numbers are good news, but many HIV experts say they paint a worrisome picture. Sponsor Message LEILA FADEL, HOST: The State Department has new data on the U.S.'s work on HIV/AIDS around the world. The department says that data shows things are working well. But as NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel reports, HIV experts dispute that take and they're warning funding cuts could help the virus spread.

+ GABRIELLE EMANUEL, BYLINE: PEPFAR, or the President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief, is lauded for having saved over 26 million lives since President George W. Bush launched it in 2003. It was also lauded for regularly providing high-quality data on the HIV epidemic, but the data haven't been released since President Trump returned to the White House and overhauled foreign aid until now. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) JEREMY LEWIN: The numbers are very, very good. EMANUEL: Jeremy Lewin of the State Department is hailing the new treatment figures that came out Friday afternoon as a sign of success. The numbers show the U.S. supported some 20 million people globally on HIV treatment as of September last year. That's roughly the same number as a year prior. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) LEWIN: People will be surprised at how resilient our health programs are and have been. EMANUEL: But many HIV experts find that statement misleading. They say the other numbers are worrisome. They show that a delicate system for preventing and finding HIV cases has been severely disrupted. Brian Honermann is with amfAR, the foundation for AIDS research. BRIAN HONERMANN: About 24% of the frontline health care workers are no longer there. They're no longer being supported. EMANUEL: He says without those health workers, the numbers show big drops in testing for HIV and new people starting treatment. HONERMANN: It's hundreds of thousands of people that we would have expected to see, and those people are now just missing. EMANUEL: That's bad news for their own health. And he points out it also allows the virus to continue to spread and potentially resurge. Gabrielle Emanuel, NPR News. Copyright &copy; 2026 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. Accuracy and availability of NPR transcripts may vary. Transcript text may be revised to correct errors or match updates to audio. Audio on npr.org may be edited after its original broadcast or publication. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. Facebook Flipboard Email Read & Listen Home News Culture Music Podcasts & Shows Connect Newsletters Facebook Instagram Press Public Editor Corrections Transcripts Contact & Help About NPR Overview Diversity NPR Network Accessibility Ethics Finances Get Involved Support Public Radio Sponsor NPR NPR Careers NPR Shop NPR Extra Terms of Use Privacy Your Privacy Choices Text Only Sponsor Message Sponsor MessageBecome an NPR sponsor (function () { var loadPageJs = function () { (window.webpackJsonp=window.webpackJsonp||[]).push([[22],{1167:function(e,n,c){e.exports=c(323)},323:function(e,n,c){"use strict";c.p=NPR.serverVars.webpackPublicPath,Promise.all([c.e(1),c.e(2),c.e(3),c.e(4),c.e(82)]).then(function(e){c(3),c(1140),c(116),c(94),c(52),c(493),c(239),c(102),c(104),c(1141),c(143),c(1142),c(238),c(48),c(1143)}.bind(null,c)).catch(c.oe)}},[[1167,0]]]); }; if (document.readyState === 'complete') { loadPageJs(); } else { window.addEventListener('load', function load() { window.removeEventListener('load', load, false); loadPageJs(); }); } })();