HIV advocates across the country are reacting to the recent mass layoffs at U.S. health agencies and the simultaneous funding cuts to HIV-related studies, health clinics, prevention services and more.

 

In recent weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services has dramatically reduced staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration and other federal health agencies. For details, see “Federal Health Department Reorganizes and Slashes Staff.”

 

What’s more, the NIH has canceled at least 145 HIV-related research grants worth almost $450 million, according to The Guardian.

 

How will the federal funding cuts and the restructuring of federal departments affect state and local providers of HIV care? One such provider facing an uncertain future is Equitas Health, one of the nation’s largest organizations serving LGBTQ and HIV-positive people. Equitas supports thousands of individuals across Ohio, Texas, Kentucky and West Virginia.

 

Equitas Health CEO David Munar told NBC 4 that federal cuts to HIV funding could undo progress in treating and preventing new HIV cases. In response, the nonprofit is joining 13 other systems across the country in opposing the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate the CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention.

 

“Ohio stands to lose, not only the funding but also the ability to fight the epidemic in our state and the ability to curve the epidemic for our people,” Munar said. “Every case, every new infection means a lifetime cost of a half a million dollars. So it’s not even the human suffering, but economically, it’s also a big step back.”

 

HIV service provider Vivent Health operates locations across Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin and has a new clinic in Chicago. For 20 years, Bill Keeton has worked with Vivent Health in Milwaukee, providing HIV prevention and care to communities most in need.

 

Vivent receives about $1.9 million from the CDC through partnerships with Wisconsin to provide not just HIV care but also related services, such as dental care, behavioral health care, mental health care, housing programs, HIV case management support and more. In Wisconsin, almost 7,000 people were living with HIV in 2022, according to AIDSVu data.

 

“At the end of the day what it means is, if the $1.9 million dollars in CDC-derived funding that Vivent Health receives goes away, we’re going to be unable to sustain the level of services and reach the number of people we need to reach to continue to successfully address the HIV epidemic in the state of Wisconsin. And that’s really unfortunate because we know that these programs are working,” Keeton told WUWM.

 

In Kentucky, LivWell Community Health Service, a nonprofit providing comprehensive health and support services related to HIV, sexually transmitted diseases and hepatitis, may also face setbacks due to funding cuts, according to The Paducah Sun.

 

LivWell receives up to $500,000 in CDC grants for HIV prevention and education services, according to executive director Donna Reeder. The grant enables LivWell to reach individuals in rural communities and provide HIV prevention tools, such as condoms, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and testing for the virus as well as sexually transmitted infections.

 

“We’ve all heard that there may be cuts with the CDC, some of the programs within the CDC, and one of those is our HIV prevention program,” Reeder told The Paducah Sun. “The grant we have through the CDC is a small portion of what we have. It will impact us some, but I do not think it will impact our services.”

 

In related news, a new study by the Burnet Institute and the World Health Organization published in The Lancet HIV  highlights the potential impact of international funding cuts on the global HIV response. The research underscores the urgent need for sustained financial support to prevent millions of new HIV infections and deaths in the coming years.

 

To read more, click #Federal Funding. There, you’ll see headlines such “Significant HHS Workforce Reduction and Restructuring Threaten the Nation’s Fight Against Cancer” and “HIV Activists March in NYC to Protest ‘Death by 1,000 Musk Cuts.’”