The battle against HIV has been dealt repeated blows in 2025 with cuts to funding for major global aid programs by the United States.

There have also been budget cuts closer to home. And experts have told DW the cuts risk undermining efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the US by 2030, even now, with the approval of lenacapavir — what UNAIDS officials have described as a "miracle" drug — in HIV prevention.

Lencapavir provides six months of protection against HIV infection. The renowned journal Science named it 2024's scientific "breakthrough of the year."

Some experts are asking whether the promise of the drug could be undone by the defunding of US public health agencies that are vital for getting lencapavir to those who need it most.

"Are we going to squander this, probably the greatest opportunity in 44 years of HIV prevention both in the US and globally?" asked Mitchell Warren, Executive Director of the nonpartisan HIV organization AVAC, in an interview with DW.

Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations agency that addresses HIV and AIDS around the world, dubbed lenacapavir a "miracle product" in 2024.

If it was hype, it was well-founded hype. In late-stage clinical trials, lenacapavir had a near-perfect record of suppressing HIV infection.

Having already approved it as a treatment to reduce viral load in patients with the disease, the US Food........

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