HHS awards $2.34 billion in grants to help Americans access HIV/AIDS care and medication
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has announced that approximately $2.34 billion in Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grants were awarded to cities, counties, states, and local community-based organizations in fiscal year (FY) 2018. This funding through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) supports a comprehensive system of HIV primary medical care, medication, and essential support services to more than half a million people living with HIV in the United States.
“New medical advances and broader access to treatment have helped transform HIV/AIDS from a likely death sentence into a manageable chronic disease,” said HHS Secretary Alex Azar. “The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is an important way to ensure that these life-saving treatments reach the Americans who need them, and the Trump Administration is committed to continuing to improve the care by Americans living with HIV/AIDS receive.”
“The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program plays a vital role in the United States’ public health response to ending the HIV epidemic,” said HRSA Administrator George Sigounas, M.S., Ph.D. “These grants will help ensure that the most vulnerable Americans living with HIV/AIDS have access to life-saving care and treatment needed to improve their health quality and medical outcomes.”
HRSA oversees the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which is a patient-centered system that provides care and treatment services to low income people living with HIV to improve health outcomes and reduce HIV transmission among hard to reach populations. The program serves approximately 50 percent of people living with diagnosed HIV infection in the United States. In 2016, approximately 85 percent of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program clients who received HIV medical care were virally suppressed, up from 69 percent in 2010.
“The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program is critical to improving clinical and public health outcomes by reducing HIV transmission and serves as an important source of ongoing access to HIV treatment and antiretroviral medication,” said Laura Cheever, M.D., Sc.M., Associate Administrator, HIV/AIDS Bureau. “Today people living with HIV who take HIV medication daily as prescribed and who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative partner.”
Go to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for the full release
