Sunday, February 7, 2021, is the annual observance of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (NBHAAD). The Strategic Leadership Council is the community group that sets the direction for NBHAAD. This year’s observance comes at a time of renewed concern and action for health equity and inclusion across the nation.

We’ve put together a list of resources from HIV.gov and our federal partners to help you get involved with NBHAAD and spread the word.

Where to Go

Our NBHAAD Awareness Day page has resources such as the NBHAAD logo, fact sheets, and other materials from the community and across the U.S. Government. We feature the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) NBHAAD digital toolkit and their Let’s Stop HIV Together campaign resources that you can use and share. We’ll also add registration details for some upcoming webinars hosted by the HHS Office of Infectious Disease and HIV/AIDS Policy (OIDP) and CDC that anyone can join.

We encourage you to stay tuned for the Strategic Leadership Council’s communications about this year’s observance. And be sure not to miss the Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America (EHE) initiative quarterly stakeholder webinar on January 27, which will provide updates on major federal activities related to EHE implementation and highlight ways to improve HIV diagnosis, care and prevention outcomes for Black women. Register here  to join.

What to Know

Given the disproportionate impact of HIV on Black communities, we encourage you to learn what’s happening with EHE implementation. This data-driven, locally-implemented effort continues its important work to reduce new HIV infections even as our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic proceeds.

PrEP is an important HIV prevention tool and the Ready Set PrEP program may be right for you or eligible individuals with whom you work. Please share information about the HIV Services Locator, where individuals can find PrEP providers in their local area.

HIV self-testing is a key strategy to improve testing uptake and increase diagnoses, particularly in these times when face-to-face testing services have been disrupted. Find information about self-testing on HIV.gov. Please use and share the Locator to find testing services nearby. (Be sure to call ahead to inquire about the availability of self-testing.)

HIV treatment helps people with HIV stay healthy and live longer. There is also a major prevention benefit: people with HIV who take HIV medicine daily as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load have effectively no risk of sexually transmitting HIV to an HIV-negative partner. Please share information about the importance of getting and staying on HIV treatment.

For more information, we provide basic HIV facts about HIV prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Know the facts and spread the word (along with your encouragement and support) with friends and family members who have not been tested for HIV, might be at risk, or are living with HIV.

How to Share

The hashtag for NBHAAD 2021 is #NBHAAD. Let your voice be heard by using the hashtag on your social media.

The following channels are part of the conversation, give them a follow, like or share:

• Facebook: HIVgov , CDC HIV , and Start Talking Stop HIV 
• Twitter: @HIVGov , @CDC_HIV/AIDS , @DrMerminCDC 
• Instagram: @HIVgov , @stophivtogether , @starttalkinghiv 

Find Out More

We’ll be posting content on our blog and on our social media channels throughout NBHAAD. Want to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest HIV resources, policies, and programs? Sign up to receive email updates.

The post How to Share the News about National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day appeared first on MyMedicPlus.

Today, February 7, 2020, is National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. This day is commemorated each year to highlight the impact that HIV and AIDS has on the black or African American population in the United States.

According to statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2018, 13% of the US population was black, but 43% of all newly diagnosed HIV infections occurred in black individuals.

In a new article published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report authors detail findings on HIV testing outcomes among black individuals in the United States.

Ending the HIV epidemic is a US initiative with the goal of reducing new HIV infections by 90% from 2020 to 2030. The first phase of the initiative is focused upon reducing incidence in 50 jurisdictions which accounted for >50% of new diagnoses during 2016-17 and 7 states with disproportionate HIV prevalence in rural areas.

Specifically, the investigators used data from the CDC’s 2017 National HIV Prevention Program Monitoring and Evaluation program to look at testing outcomes in black individuals living in jurisdictions deemed high prevalence by the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.

“Factors such as stigma, comorbidities, and socioeconomic inequalities might increase blacks’ risk for acquiring or transmitting HIV and limit access to quality health care, housing and HIV prevention messaging,” the authors wrote.

As a result, delayed access to HIV prevention and treatment can lead to work HIV care outcomes including delays in linkage to care and viral suppression.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      In total, 1,954,741 CDC-funded HIV tests were conducted in phase-1 jurisdictions. Of the total tests, black individuals accounted for 43.2% of the tests, twice that of whites (21.6%) or Hispanics/Latinos (22.4%). Additionally, 49.1% (4007) of new HIV diagnoses occurred in black individuals.

Among individuals who received a new diagnosis, 79.2% were linked to care within 90 days, 71.4% were interviewed for partner services, and 81.8% were referred to HIV prevention services.

Although 79.2% of blacks with newly diagnosed HIV infection were linked to HIV medical care within 90 days, the percentage is below the 2010 National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) goal of 85%. Based on this, it may be difficult to achieve the 2020 NHAS goal of 85% linkage to care within 30 days of diagnosis and the initiative to reduce new HIV infections by 90% by 2030.

The investigators also note that by sub-population, the highest percentages of HIV tests conducted in the Ending the HIV Epidemic jurisdictions were among men who have sex with men (27.4%), a population that had the highest rates of HIV-positive results among the black subpopulation (3.3%).

More than 70% of MSM with newly diagnosed infections were linked to HIV medical care (80.6%), interviewed for partner services (71.3%), or referred to HIV prevention services (84.2%).

“To achieve the goals of [Ending the HIV Epidemic] HIV prevention programs should focus on locally tailored evidence-based testing strategies to enhance and overcome barriers for linkage to and retention in care and reduce onward HIV transmission and HIV-related disparities,” authors of the report wrote.

The post Evaluating HIV Testing Rates on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day appeared first on MyMedicPlus.