ASOs Praise White House Plan to Address HIV In the U.S.

The White House outlined their HIV/AIDS Strategy earlier this month, and local AIDS Service Organizations and community leaders praised the President and his Administration for their leadership and the ambitious goals outlined in the Strategy for addressing HIV in the United States over the next five years.

"We thank the White House for its focus on HIV in the U.S., recognize the progress made over the past five years, and congratulate them on the improvements included in this update," commented Michael Ruppal, Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. "We look forward to working with this and future Administrations, the Congress, state and local governments, and other partners to ensure the Strategy's goals are met and we can have a society where new HIV infections are rare and people with HIV have access to quality care."

The updated Strategy continues a focus on reducing new infections, increasing access to care and treatment, reducing health disparities, and improving federal coordination.�It also sets new outcome measures and considers new policy developments including the Affordable Care Act and scientific advancements such as treatment as prevention and pre-exposure prophylactics (PrEP).

There continues to be a focus on the populations most impacted, including gay men of all races and ethnicities, particularly gay black men; black women and men; Latinos and Latinas; and people who inject drugs. The update fittingly adds new emphasis on youth, particularly gay youth; people in the South; and transgender women.

Increased testing, high-impact prevention, linkage to care and adherence to treatment to achieve greater viral suppression, and increased research, education, and accountability are also highlighted. The strategy recognizes that implementing the Affordable Care Act, including its coverage of preventive services such as testing, and continuing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program are critical to achieving the goals contained in the Strategy.

"The President has crafted an exceptional National Strategy to address HIV in the U.S.," said Carl Schmid, Deputy Executive Director of The AIDS Institute. "Now we must turn to its implementation. Sustained leadership by the Administration along with continued federal resources will be necessary if we are to meet the Strategy's goals. While Congress has proposed to maintain funding for most HIV programs, unfortunately, it has proposed to cut or eliminate several programs that are critical to addressing HIV in the U.S., including parts of the Minority AIDS Initiative, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, STD Prevention at the CDC, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, and Title X family planning. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act is also impeded. As Congress continues to consider its spending bills for this year and in the future, we hope it will work with the President to increase the budget caps so that the proposed cuts will not occur and to allow the Affordable Care Act to be implemented so the Strategy's goals can be met."

The Los Angeles LGBT Center Center's Health Policy Director Eric Gutierrez said that the White House's National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS): 2020 accurately reflects the current public health realities and builds upon the latest advances in care and treatment to help form a smart and strategic action plan for the next five years.�

Since the last plan was released in 2010, there have been significant advancements in HIV treatment and prevention.�Greater access to HIV testing, clinical care and life-saving drugs through the Affordable Care Act has been a game changer and the updated NHAS: 2020 smartly emphasizes full access to recent breakthroughs like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). It also rightly focuses on the communities most at-risk, particularly transgender women and gay/bisexual youth and men of color. In Los Angeles, 87 percent of those living with HIV are gay or bisexual men.

"An AIDS-free generation is no longer a dream and the updated National HIV/AIDS Strategy: 2020 is an evidence-based and goal-driven blueprint that can help us realize that dream, but only if the ignorance, stigma and inaction that have helped fuel the epidemic are defeated," said Gutrierrez. "The Los Angeles LGBT Center thanks the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and its director, Douglas Brooks, for this updated action plan for America."

Also praising the move was Jeffrey S. Crowley,�O'Neill Institute National HIV/AIDS Initiative Program Director, who served as the Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and Senior Advisor on Disability Policy from 2009-2011.�In this role, he led the development of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States.

Crowley reminded us that in 2010,�President Obama fulfilled a commitment to the HIV community by releasing the first comprehensive�Strategy.�This was a five-year plan to guide the efforts of all stakeholders working to end the HIV epidemic in the United States.

"I can only feel gratitude that the President has built such a strong legacy of consistent and strategic leadership in�addressing�HIV by implementing new insurance coverage options under the Affordable Care Act, refocusing prevention efforts and better aligning funding under the High Impact Prevention initiative, supporting and embracing significant research advances including the deployment of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) as a promising new prevention intervention and promoting immediate initiation�of HIV treatment on diagnosis, as well as continually supporting the essential Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and other federal HIV programs," said Crowley.

Federal�HIV program staff at all levels have truly reinvigorated the federal response to HIV and people living with HIV, community advocates, providers and others have collaborated in new ways and demonstrated a willingness to support difficult, but necessary policy and programmatic changes.

Crowley was particularly encouraged to see the further refinement of�indicators in the updated Strategy so that we can better monitor our progress and adapt our responses to new information.�He was also pleased to see a strengthening of the Strategy's focus on valuing all communities impacted by HIV, but doing even more to highlight those at highest risk, including young black gay and bisexual men.

"I am humbled to have been able to play a role in working with the HIV community to sharpen our national focus on responding to the HIV epidemic," said Crowley. "Every day, we must push ourselves to do more to achieve the Strategy's vision of a world where new HIV infections are rare and all people living with HIV in this country have access to high quality life-extending care free from stigma and discrimination."