KATHMANDU: Nepal has witnessed a significant improvement in its HIV infection rate. According to the National HIV Fact Sheet 2025, made public last month on the occasion of the 38th World AIDS Day by the National Center for AIDS and STD Control, the rate of new HIV infections has decreased ninefold over the past 24 years.

In the year 2000, the number of newly infected people nationwide was 5,545. By 2024, this number had declined to 614.

Senior Health Education Officer and Information Officer at the Center, Lokraj Pandey, stated that the government has succeeded in improving the situation due to continuous awareness, prevention, and treatment programs against HIV. “Testing, counseling, and therapy programs were conducted across the country, awareness reached the general population, and this helped achieve the improvement targets,” he said.

Across the country, Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) services are being provided through 96 ART centers and 20 dispensing centers. Nepal’s first ART center was established in 2004 at Shukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Teku, Kathmandu. The government has been distributing free antiretroviral medicines through ART centers to people who test HIV-positive. People living with HIV must take antiretroviral medicines daily, and these medicines must be taken for life.

Nepal identified its first HIV-positive case 37 years ago, in 1988. Currently, according to the Centre’s fact sheet, the estimated number of people living with HIV in the country is 34,337, including 1,058 children under the age of 14. Among them, 27,054 people are regularly receiving ART services/antiretroviral medicines.

However, after support from donor agencies such as USAID ended, the risk of HIV infection has increased among gender and sexual minority communities, said Numa Limbu, who has been working in the field of rights for this community. “After the funding gap from donor agencies, community members have stopped receiving family planning tools and regular HIV treatment services,” she said. “Although government hospitals provide free services, people do not want to go due to breaches of confidentiality and stigma.”

Limbu also said that recently, involvement of individuals from this community in drug trafficking and drug use has increased, and sharing drugs during use poses a risk of infectious diseases such as HIV. Limbu is a candidate from Morang Constituency No. 4 for the House of Representatives election scheduled to be held on March 5.

Senior Health Education Officer and Information Officer Lokraj Pandey from the National Center for AIDS and STD Control also stated that since HIV infection rates have improved in recent times, the government has started cutting budgets, making it difficult to continue awareness programs, which poses a risk that infection rates could rise again. The government has allocated a budget of Rs 290 million for the Center in the current fiscal year, which is Rs 50 million less than last year’s budget.

However, Pandey said that there are no problems in treatment, as the government has continued the free ART services provided to infected individuals.