CDC: Progress in preventing HIV ‘stalled’

Efforts to prevent HIV have stalled since 2013, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday.

Analysis of HIV trends from 2010 to 2016, the most recent data available, shows that the number of HIV infections began to plateau in 2013 at about 39,000 infections per year.

{mosads}

The report comes three weeks after President Trump announced a new campaign to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. within 10 years. 

Eugene McCray, director of the CDC’s Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, framed the report as evidence the campaign is needed.

“After a decades-long struggle, the path to eliminate America’s HIV epidemic is clear,” McCray said in a statement. “Expanding efforts across the country will close gaps, overcome threats, and turn around troublesome trends.”

The CDC said rural areas, the South, and “disproportionately affected populations like African-Americans and Latinos” could most benefit from expanding efforts.

“Now is the time for our Nation to take bold action. We strongly support President Trump’s plan to end the HIV epidemic in America,” CDC Director Robert R. Redfield said in a statement. “We must move beyond the status quo to end the HIV epidemic in America.”

The president’s proposal would increase access to medications that can treat and prevent HIV and focus prevention efforts in communities with the highest rates of HIV.

Federal health officials said the government hopes to reduce diagnoses of HIV by 75 percent within five years and 90 percent within 10 years.