Commemorating World AIDS Day on Wednesday, President Joe Biden unveiled a new strategy with the goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030, according to the White House.
This strategy — a promise Biden made on the campaign trail — is the third update to the national AIDS strategy first started by President Barack Obama in 2010, per Reuters.
- “President Biden is honoring that commitment by releasing the new national HIV/AIDS strategy on World AIDS Day and providing a framework and a direction for the administration’s policies, research, programs and planning,” a senior administration official said, per the report.
The major targets in the strategy include a 75% reduction in new HIV infections by 2025 and a 90% reduction by 2030, per the 98-paged strategy guide.
- Apart from prevention, goals also focus on improving health outcomes for people with HIV, reducing health inequality and creating more coordinated efforts to help eradicate this disease.
- The guide encourages reform for state laws that criminalize HIV transmission while engaging the private sector to help fight this disease.
- Per CNN, the strategies identified “priority populations” which include Black women, trans women, people between the ages of 13 and 24, drug users and Black, Latino and American Indian men.
Per The White House, 40 years of living with this epidemic, 36 million people have lost their lives — including 700,000 in the United States. Approximately 38 million people — 1.2 million in the United States — are living with HIV.
To end the epidemic, Biden has requested $670 million from the 2022 fiscal year’s budget. Additionally, $450 million was requested to provide housing assistance and supportive services for low-income people with HIV.