Throughout the United States, local health advocates and elected officials are voicing concerns over President Donald Trump’s proposed reorganization and potential elimination of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of HIV Prevention, and they’re detailing the devastating consequences the cuts may have for their local HIV communities and the organizations that provide health services.

 

Despite advances in biomedical prevention, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and a 12% decline in new HIV cases from 2018 to 2022, about 31,800 people acquired HIV in 2022, according to the CDC. About 1.2 million people in the United States are living with HIV.

 

The division award most funding via grants to state, local and tribal health departments, national and community-based organizations, academic institutions and education agencies.

 

The HIV division does “enormous amounts of important work to make sure that Americans are as best protected as possible from acquiring HIV infection,” John Brooks, MD, who retired as chief medical officer of the division about six months ago, told Rough Draft Atlanta.

 

If enacted, cuts could impact the $50 million in CDC funding for HIV efforts in Georgia, for example, which had the second highest rate of new HIV cases in 2022, according to Rough Draft.

 

“If these prevention resources…stopped, I have no doubt in my mind that new infections would go up and given that we have the power now to end this epidemic, that would be a tragedy,” Brooks said.

 

In South Florida, proposed cuts would affect local clinics, such as The Pride Center, which has been providing HIV testing and education since 2006. The Center’s CEO, Robert Boo, said that South Florida, which for a decade has had the greatest number of new HIV diagnoses, will not be able to keep up with demand if funding cuts occur, Local 10 News reports.

 

“[The LGBTQ community] come to us because they trust us,” Boo said. “If we don’t get this funding, we may need to scale back some of our services.”

 

Although Florida has adopted a plan to eliminate HIV transmission and reduce HIV-related deaths, the state tracked 4,606 new HIV diagnoses in 2022, according to the Florida Department of Health.

 

“The impact of these dollars completely going away will devastate prevention efforts, and the South will be greatly impacted. The fearmongering and conflicting messages exacerbate concerns we have long worked to mitigate as an organization,” deputy director of Southern AIDS Coalition, Mardrequs Harris, told Rough Draft.

 

In Illinois, where nearly 43,000 people are living with HIV, advocates like Joli Robinson, CEO of the Center on Halsted, warn that the proposed cuts would leave many vulnerable populations—including Black and Latino men—without essential services.

 

Although the CDC, Department of Health and Human Services and the White House have not made any official announcements about the division’s fate, advocates are bracing for upcoming challenges and seeking alternative sources of funding.

 

For more, click #Federal Funding. There, you’ll see headlines such as “Eight Countries Could Soon Run Out of HIV Meds Due to U.S. Funding Cuts, Says WHO,” “CDC’s Division of HIV Prevention Could Face Reorganization or Elimination” and “With Data and Determination, HIV Science Conference Urges Commitment to Trans Lives.”