During his first mandate, President Donald Trump promised to end the US HIV epidemic – and he put the resources of the federal government behind the effort. This time, he deployed the powers of his office for intestinal funding, abandoning these communities with the highest risk of HIV.
Health care groups across the South reduce screening tests and the awareness of HIV due to budget cuts and dismissals of the Trump administration.
A small clinic in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, no longer offers HIV tests to people. The subsidy for the prevention of HIV of AIDS Services Coalition compared to the centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been delayed by month – a situation linked in part to CDC layoffs including grant administrators. The coalition could not afford to manage the clinic without any repayment promise.
During a recent event in Jackson, non -profit groups offered hoagies, showers, verifications for blood pressure and free HIV tests to people in need. The organizers compromised themselves for opinions that they had received a few days earlier, reducing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funding which had been swept away in the dismissal by the Trump administration of the Dollars in research and more than 11 billion dollars by the country's health services. This would mean feeding fewer people and offering less care.
The loss could be tragic, said June Gipson, CEO of the health care group, my brother's goalkeeper. People who lack stable housing, transport or healthcare access often need additional support to be tested for HIV or to stay in treatment. Otherwise, said Gipson, more people will become more sick with HIV and will have a greater chance of broadcasting the virus to others.
The directors of other community groups in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee told Kff Health News that they too much reduced HIV and awareness expenses due to delayed or reduced federal funds – or fears of more to come.
This is a particular problem in the South, because the region explains Half of the new cases of HIV in the nation In 2022. The southern states are also based on federal funds: Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana put state funds to HIV prevention last year, against half of the Colorado budget from the State and 88% from New York.
“When you are in the South, you need the federal government,” said Gipson.
Since February, my brother's goalkeeper has lost a succession of subsidies. The National Institutes of Health have shown a value of $ 12 million, not even two years in a 10 -year project, intended to combat inequalities. The letter of termination of the NIH has echoed the executive decrees attacking diversity, equity and inclusion. Then the group lost a CDC price to reduce health disparities. More cuts are on the horizon if the congress passes the budget proposed by the Trump administration, which reduces the CDC budget by $ 3.59 billion. And his plan, disclosed in April, because the Ministry of Health and Social Services eliminates any funding for the initiative of first period of Trump “ending the epidemic of HIV”. From 2017 to 2022, new HIV infections decreased by 21% In cities and southern states, he targeted.
“We see a question from what it means to really work to put an end to HIV in this country,” said Dafina Ward, executive director of the Southern Aids Coalition.
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