MyBlack^® Health

New HIV Strategy Focuses In on Black Community

Source: The Root

Top government officials convened at the White House Tuesday to unveil the Obama administration’s new blueprint for combating AIDS in America. Before a crowd of about 60, Director of Domestic Policy Melody Barnes, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy Jeffrey Crowley and Assistant Secretary for Health Howard Koh rolled out both the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and the strategy’s implementation plan.


Calling it “the first comprehensive AIDS strategy in history,” Secretary Sebelius introduced the plan’s four goals: a reduction in new HIV infection rates, increased access to care for people already living with HIV, a reduction in HIV-related disparities and a more coordinated national response to the AIDS epidemic. Calling the plan “aggressive,” Crowley said the administration hoped to see a 25 percent reduction in annual new infections by 2015. “I wish I could set that at fifty or seventy-five percent,” he said, “but that’s not realistic.” By that same year, officials also hope to increase by 20 percent the number of gay and bisexual men and African Americans with undetectable viral loads.


Overall, the plan is ambitious but attainable, especially because it’s not afraid to supplant political correctness with unwavering pragmatism. Consider this main tenet of the new strategy, the subtext of which speaks almost directly to the black community’s dismal AIDS statistics:

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