According to the Centers for Disease Control, 56,000 Americans contract the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) each year, and, based on a 2009 Kaiser Family Foundation study, 43% of Americans know someone living with HIV. On July 13, 2010, the Obama administration launched the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, to be coordinated by the White House's Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP).
The National HIV/AIDS Strategy
According to ONAP, this federal plan is the result of several town hall and White House meetings with HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness advocates and public leaders. Obama also held expert meetings on youth and HIV, women and HIV, and housing and HIV in December 2009.
Approximately 4,200 people attended 14 community-based meetings (12 in U.S. cities, 2 in U.S. territories) to help discuss the strategy. They released a summary report for those meetings in April 2010. An Interagency Working Group helped formulate the strategy for Presidential review.
The strategy has three goals:
- to reduce the number of HIV infections,
- to increase access to treatment and improve care for those already infected,
- and to reduce HIV/AIDS health disparities.
A Federal Implementation Plan is in place to carry out these goals, which also involve spending $30 million to reduce infections and an additional $25 million in state funding for subsidizing HIV treatment medications.
National HIV/AIDS Strategy Focuses on High-Risk Populations and Hot Spot Geographic Areas
The strategy describes several high risk populations it plans to target:
- Gay and bisexual men (2% of the population, 53% of new infections)
- Black men and women (13% of the population, 46% of those currently living with HIV)
- Latinos and Latinas (infection rates 3 and 5 times higher than Whites, respectively)
- Substance abusers (small percent of population, but a large percent of new cases)
The strategy also discusses steps and anticipated results in the government's efforts to reduce health disparities. Steps include reducing discrimination around the HIV/AIDS, working at the community-level where infection rates are high, and decreasing the mortality rates in high-risk communities.
The results would be seen through increasing the detection of HIV infected individuals with low viral loads in high-risk groups by 20% by 2015. The rationale is that individuals with low viral loads tend to be less infectious than high viral load individuals, so if more people can be diagnosed at that stage, disparities may decrease.
The plan also described geographic areas where the population is disproportionately impacted, including the South, the Northeast, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. These are some of the areas where interventions may be the strongest.
A National HIV/AIDS Strategy was Long Overdue
Many of those working with HIV/AIDS impacted populations are highly encouraged at the goals of the plan. The strategy was based on community input and expert opinion. It will require the collaboration of several federal agencies and existing entities working on this issue.
The White House Office on National AIDS Policy has in-depth information on the process of the strategy's formation as well as constant updates on other HIV/AIDS information. Another government site, AIDS.gov, has basic information on the disease and other resources, such as a search box to find treatment centers.
Sources
Obama Shifts AIDS Strategy to High-Risk Groups. San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 15.
White House. 2010. National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States. Retrieved July 16.
Kaiser Family Foundation. 2009. 2009 Survey of Americans with HIV/AIDS: Summary of Findings on the Domestic Epidemic. Retrieved July 16.
Gia Grier McGinnis - Gia Grier McGinnis is a Baltimore, Maryland native and currently serves as the an Assistant Director of a university community engagement ...
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