Declarations of the TRUMP administration that officials are considering reductions in key programs for HIV and AIDS prevention generate indignation among two of the largest LGBTQ + service organizations in South California.
The leaders of the LGBT Center in Los Angeles and DAP Health in the Coachella valley said that a sharp reduction in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of HIV prevention could endanger many lives and potentially increase the long -term cost for taxpayers, if the incidence of the virus that causes an increase in AIDS.
When the Wall Street Journal announced the news of the potential Cup for the first time in mid-March, a spokesperson said that no “final decision” had been taken “when rationalization of the HIV prevention division of the CDC”.
Questioned this week for an update, the spokesperson for the CDC, Nicholas Spinelli, referred questions to the parental organization of the agency, the Ministry of Health and Social Services, which did not answer. Friday, the White House did not respond to a request for comments.
Health agencies across the country have contributed to reducing the incidence of HIV, largely by tests, advice and distribution of drugs that prevent the spread of the disease. Much of the financing of this work came from the centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The drop rate was 12% nationally between 2018 and 2022, with an even more clear 21% in the 50 local areas where the CDC concentrated its prevention efforts.
The LGBT center in Los Angeles, which provides awareness, testing and pre -sale drugs of HIV, said that it had been left in limbo on what was going to become its CDC subsidy of $ 450,000 to support this work.
“We have seen huge gains in the fight to end HIV because of the real investments that were made in prevention and care,” said Joe Hollendoner, CEO of the LGBT center. “We even talked about how, about our life, we could put an end to the HIV epidemic and arrive at zero new cases.”
“But if we finish HIV prevention contracts as we have planned … It is not a hyperbole to say that it will cost a human life.”
This echoes the concerns expressed by DAP Health, which operates 25 clinics in the counties of Riverside and San Diego, many of which in the Coachella valley, which has a large gay population and where the HIV rate is four times the national average.
“This” economic “strategy to decimate the HIV prevention program of the CDC will only increase costs, both human and financial,” said David Brinkman, CEO of DAP Health, in a statement.
Brinkman highlighted research that has shown that the average cost of life treatment for a patient who contracts HIV at around $ 500,000 per year. The estimated “savings” of $ 1.8 billion if the federal disease agency eliminated the HIV program would disappear quickly if more than 3,600 Americans were newly infected, “said Brinkman, adding:” And we know that the record of lives affected by HIV with this strike will be in the tens of thousands. “
A frank voice against a possible reduction or elimination of the anti-HIV program is the Ruul Ruiz representative (D-Palm Desert), a former emergency doctor who represents the Coachella valley.
“The CDC HIV prevention division plays a vital role in reducing new infections, the savings of billions of avoidable health care costs and the guarantee that individuals can access vital drugs,” Ruiz said in a statement.
Ruiz noted that the CDC program also plays a central role in the response to viral hepatitis and tuberculosis. The Congress member joined 100 other Democrats in the House and the Senate to send a letter to President Trump, the exhortant to reconsider any plan to reduce or eliminate the disease prevention program.
The legislators reminded Trump that during his first mandate in 2019, he declared the objective of putting an end to the HIV epidemic. “One of the pillars of your initiative, as shown in the CDC website, is prevention,” said the letter. “It is imperative that you respect this commitment.”
CJ Tobe, director of transformation of DAP Health, said that the potential change in the Trump administration seemed inexplicable.
“It is a 180 -degree turn to threaten to win,” said Tobe. “It’s personal and it makes no sense.”
Confusion and disorders have also enveloped supported research by the US government on HIV.
CNN reported this week that the National Institutes of Health had eliminated the financing of dozens of research subsidies linked to HIV. The media has cited a database from the Ministry of Health and Social Services and of the cited scientists who said that the cuts would also bring a paralyzing blow in order to end HIV.
Among the people on the cutting block, there were subsidies related to the preparation, the drug diet that can thwart HIV infection, scientists told New York Times.
The financing of the intervention against disease abroad also seemed to endanger when the Trump administration froze foreign aid and then eliminated the American agency for international development, the main American agency to provide assistance to other countries.
A study published in Lancet said that a reduction in support from the United States and other major funding countries could lead to 4.4 million to 10.7 million new HIV infections worldwide by 2030, killing 770,000 to nearly 3 million people more.
“Unmountained funding reductions could considerably reverse the progress of HIV’s response by 2030, affecting the countries of sub -Saharan Africa and the key and vulnerable populations disproportionately,” said the study.
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