KITWE, ZAMBIA — The U.S. State Department released updated data on the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief on a Friday afternoon in April 2026, the first public release of PEPFAR figures since January 2025. The data showed that as of the end of September 2025, the United States supported HIV treatment for more than 20 million people in 50 countries, while outside analysts identified disruptions across several service areas.

In previous years, PEPFAR data was released four times a year, providing quarterly detail on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic with a focus on U.S.-funded efforts. President Trump's foreign aid overhaul interrupted PEPFAR operations in 2025. The program was launched by President George W. Bush in 2003, is credited with saving 26 million lives through HIV diagnosis, treatment, outreach and support, and costs the U.S. about $5 billion a year.

"The numbers are very, very good," said Jeremy Lewin, acting undersecretary of state for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom. "People will be surprised at, I think, how resilient our health programs are and have been."

The number of pregnant and breastfeeding women who started PrEP rose from 43,000 in the final quarter of 2024 to 103,000 in the final quarter of 2025. A statement accompanying the release said: "The message is clear: we cut overall spending by 30 percent while preserving critical frontline HIV care and eliminating wasteful programs. This proves the America First Global Health Strategy works."

The Foundation for AIDS Research and experts from the International AIDS Society assessed the new data and found substantial disruptions across PEPFAR service areas that amount to what they called a troubling inflection point. In PEPFAR-funded clinics and treatment centers where services were not disrupted, diagnoses of new HIV cases dropped by 13%. In places where services had been interrupted for a period of time, new HIV diagnoses fell by almost 30%.

"These data show nothing less than a five-alarm fire," said Asia Russell, executive director of the advocacy group Health GAP. "For the first time in history, PEPFAR has put fewer people on [HIV] therapy than the year before. That is an absolute indictment of this administration."

Brian Honermann, deputy director of public policy at amfAR, said the released figures understate the impact of the interruptions. "The data presented by the State Department obscures the true damage of the interruptions," he said. "About 24% of the frontline health care workers are no longer there. They're no longer being supported."