2026 Budget Skips HIV Prevention, Covers Only Treatment

Mexico City, Mexico — Deputy Laura Hernández García of the Movimiento Ciudadano party has stated that the 2026 Federal Expenditure Budget Project contains no specific resources for the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, only covering antiretroviral treatments.

"In 2026, the strategy of having no effective or specific budget for HIV and related diseases continues, as for the upcoming year, 66 billion 825 million pesos have been assigned to branch 12 related to health, but this mostly only covers antiretroviral treatments, not prevention," she said during a press conference.

She elaborated that, at an international level, the most recent UNAIDS report called on member countries to intervene in condom distribution campaigns and promote the incorporation of community organizations in the HIV response.

"In this bill that will be reviewed today, in general, and that will be reviewed in particular today and until Thursday, there is no earmarked budget," she stated.

"While it is true that there were changes precisely to avoid duplications, it is also not being specified that a certain amount of money is specific for HIV, which means it can be lost at the discretion of whoever spends it, whether for obesity, other epidemiological diseases, and this is very serious," she warned.

She argued that "prevention is care," asserting that if infection from HIV, as well as sexually transmitted infections, is not prevented, "we are going back decades."

For his part, Carlos Gutiérrez of the Mexican Association of HIV Care Services commented that since the previous presidential administration, there has been an emphasis on prevention as the main tool to achieve health.

"That is what we are demanding, that there be specific prevention according to the different populations to prevent, not only the transmission of HIV, but other diseases that go together, such as sexually transmitted infections and others," he said.

He emphasized that since HIV prevention programs were implemented, "it was also possible to largely control sexually transmitted infections, for which there were not many records and there were no accurate, professional, science-based campaigns. Now they do exist."

Ricardo Hernández, of the Network Against the Criminalization of HIV, recalled that, according to UNAIDS goals, "we need to accelerate the response to reach the goals so that by 2030, 95 percent of the people we estimate are living with HIV in the world and in our country as well, have a diagnosis."

"Secondly, that the same percentage have antiretroviral treatment," he added.

He emphasized that, in addition to the budget, it is necessary for civil society "to be the ones who carry out, as peers and people close to these populations, all this prevention strategy. Without them, no budget will be effective."