Trump's Plan To End HIV Epidemic Targets These U.S. Communities

President Donald Trump said at Tuesday’s State of the Union Address that he has a plan to end the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called it “one of the most important public health initiatives in history.” Azar explained in a blog post how new tools allow health officials to pinpoint where HIV infections are spreading most rapidly. More than 50 percent of new HIV diagnoses occurred in 48 counties, Washington D.C., and in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the agency says.

The hardest-hit areas, which include seven states with high rural HIV infection rates — Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kentucky and South Carolina — will get additional expertise, technology and resources, Azar wrote on the blog post.

The goal is to reduce new infections by 75 percent in the next five years and by 90 percent in the next decade.

Below are the communities HHS plans to target as part of the plan:

Arizona

Maricopa County

California

Alameda County
Los Angeles County
Orange County
Riverside County
Sacramento County
San Bernardino County
San Diego County
San Francisco County

Florida

Broward County
Duval County
Hillsborough County
Miami-Dade County
Orange County
Palm Beach County
Pinellas County

Georgia

Cobb County
DeKalb County
Fulton County
Gwinnett County

Illinois

Cook County

Indiana

Marion County

Louisiana

East Baton Rouge Parish
Orleans Parish

Maryland

Baltimore City
Montgomery County
Prince George's County

Massachusetts

Suffolk County

Michigan

Wayne County

Nevada

Clark County

New Jersey

Essex County
Hudson County

New York

Bronx County
Kings County
New York County
Queens County

North Carolina

Mecklenburg County

Ohio

Cuyahoga County
Franklin County
Hamilton County

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia County

Tennessee

Shelby County

Texas

Bexar County
Dallas County
Harris County
Tarrant County
Travis County

Washington

King County

Washington, DC

Puerto Rico

San Juan Municipio

“We have lost more than 700,000 American lives to HIV since 1981,” Azar wrote. “Within the next 10 years, we have the chance to end the HIV epidemic for the next generation.”

Public health efforts have driven the number of new HIV infections down to approximately 40,000 per year, according to the HHS. However, Azar wrote that not all populations are benefiting from these advances and stigma still surrounds HIV. Azar also wrote that progress in reducing the number of infections has plateaued and that the opioid crisis poses a significant threat due to possible needle sharing, one of the ways that HIV infections are spread.

According to Azar, the plan will fund the following areas of action:

1. Increasing investments in geographic hotspots through our existing, effective programs, such as the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, as well as a new program through community health centers that will provide medicine to protect persons at highest risk from getting HIV.
2. Using data to identify where HIV is spreading most rapidly and guide decision-making to address prevention, care and treatment needs at the local level.
3. Providing funds for the creation of a local HIV HealthForce in these targeted areas to expand HIV prevention and treatment.

You can read more about the plan to end HIV in the United States here.

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